Mix the materials with a little water and then
beat them up with a stick until the compound is quite ductile. When
applied it may be bandaged with a cloth. The best season for grafting in
India is the rains.
MANURE.--Almost any thing that rots quickly is a good manure. It is
possible to manure too highly. A plant sometimes dies from too much
richness of soil as well as from too barren a one.
WATERING.--Keep up a regular moisture, but do not deluge your plants
until the roots rot. Avoid giving very cold water in the heat of the day
or in the sunshine. Even in England some gardeners in a hot summer use
luke-warm water for delicate plants. But do not in your fear of
overwatering only wet the surface. The earth all round and below the
root should be equally moist, and not one part wet and the other dry. If
the plant requires but little water, water it seldom, but let the water
reach all parts of the root equally when you water at all.
GATHERING AND PRESERVING FLOWERS.--Always use the knife, and prefer such
as are coming into flower rather than such as are fully expanded. If
possible gather from crowded plants, or parts of plants, so that every
gathering may operate at the same time as a judicious pruning and
thinning. Flowers may be preserved when gathered, by inserting their
ends in winter, in moist earth, or moss; and may be freshened, when
withered, by sprinkling them with water, and putting them in a close
vessel, as under a bellglass, handglass, flowerpot or in a botanic box;
if this will not do, sprinkle them with warm water heated to 80 deg.
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