This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 edition. Excerpt: ...plants have once become fairly dried, or when the soil has shrunk away from the sides of the pot, the water, as a matter of course, runs down without penetrating the ball of earth; but this is not what we want, and the best thing to do in such a case is to set the pot in a vessel of water till the soil and roots are both well moistened. Some people bore holes in the soil with a stick, and fill them with water, than which there cannot be a more baneful practice. We have been told that a plant should always be shaded while having such a watering, but we maintain that if they be watered before sunrise and after sunset, such nonsense may be dispensed with. Plants standing still, as we have said before, seldom want watering; in short, the drier they can be kept without actually perishing altogether the better. The soil must not be allowed to go to dust as it were, but provided the pot stands upon something a little damp it will be found sufficient. Plants of a succulent nature, or those at all like lilies, grow all the better when supplied with water pans to stand in. Musk and similar plants are proof of this. As regards another class of plants mucli depends upon how dry they may be permitted to get after they have completed their work in the blooming line. Cactuses, for instance, prefer a scorching dry place, till they get all shrivelled, and then, after a time, sprinkling the leaves with lukewarm water, and giving them first a moister and then a hotter and dryer place, induces them to put forth their blossoms abundantly. The general rule of watering most things well while growing, and afterwards to give them only just enough to keep them from flagging, is good practice; in the case of bulbs it is especially so, inasmuch as they should be...