The Decoration of Windoivs in Summer 



235 



way wth silent and measured step. And 



. need we wonder at it in these our times when 

 we read of the Hellenic race symboHzing 



. their language by the flowers of the period. 

 Nor are they alone in this, for we have the 



■ Chinese, long before other nations, "com- 

 municating ideas by means of florographic 



-signs." And going back to Eden, were not 

 there fruits and flowers of every kind to 

 captivate and charm ? and we all know how 

 enticing the beautiful Apples in the middle 

 of the garden were ; and as to flowers, as one 

 writer puts it — 



Flowers ! the sole luxury that Nature knew 

 In Eden's pure and guiltless garden. 



But we are discoursing, or intended to dis- 

 • course upon Window Gardening, and while 

 doing so let us remind our readers that the 

 bestsort of windowgardening in summer isthat 

 ■of the decoration of the window out-of-doors. 

 There is less of this in winter, although even 

 in winter's gloom a bright coloured bulbous 

 plant may be made to peer out of the dark- 

 ness of the green of the climber, and give 

 light and life, and good cheer to the troubled 

 and anxious and thoughtful mind. But as 

 the sombre dresses of winter are laid 

 aside, and the light and airy and graceful 

 styles of summer come again upon us, so do 

 the variety and brightness of the colours of 

 flowers. We cannot have the blaze of floral 

 beauty out-of-doors in winter, no more than can 

 we have those showy and beautiful costumes 

 that make beautiful woman even more beauti- 

 ful still. We must exchange our tender Pelar- 

 goniums, and Verbenas and Calceolarias, and 

 Lobelias and Fuchsias, and many other things, 

 for the hardier, less vivid-coloured denizens 

 of more northern chmes. We may wreath 

 the Ivy, or train the naked-stemmed Jessamine 

 about our verandahs \ we may have the Christ- 

 mas Rose, or the Snowdrop, or the Crocus 

 peering out from a box of dull earth to enliven 

 the window, but our best efforts fall far short 

 of summer's beauteous flowers — they diff"er, 

 indeed, as much as the summer from the win- 

 ter day. There is a dullness and coldness 



teresting. To keep the interest awake, and 

 to charm the lover of nature, flowers at 

 that time must be selected and kept for the 

 interior of the window. And our readers 

 have seen, by pourtrayal, and heard by the 

 mouths of our correspondents, how beautiful 

 even a window may be in the dull cold days 

 of winter. 



We said that the suburbs of London teemed 

 with a beauteous display of flowers — window 

 flowers, too. And of what were they com- 

 posed ? That is the point on which we mean 

 to say something, to shew what, in our 

 opinion, is in good taste, and, by inference, 

 what is not. Possibly the neatest dressed cot- 

 tage window we saw was in one of the houses 

 along the green lanes in one of the many 

 roads from London to Cheshunt. Round the 

 window had been led a Wistaria sinensis, 

 which, in its season of flower, would be some- 

 thing very attractive for the passers-by. Later 

 on in the season, it displays its foliage to 

 great advantage, and distinct glaucous hand- 

 some fohage it has. That foliage partly 

 covered the box-like ledge, formed for keep- 

 ing the earth for plant feeding within the win- 

 dow-sill. Springing over the box edge, was 

 some variegated Ivy, and on its margin 

 rested masses of blue Lobelia. In the centre 

 of the box stood upright a Humea, with its 

 spray-hke infloresence, not very fully de- 

 veloped, nor yet of very important cultiva- 

 tion, but sufficient to give character to the 

 simple flowers that flanked it on either side. 

 Then came a Madame Lemoine Pelargonium, 

 with its trusses of flowers so decidedly beau- 

 tiful that we never saw it in greenhouse or 

 window at all in comparison with this of the 

 humble cottage. We noted it particularly, 

 and prized it since, as one of the Pelargoniums 

 of the million, for softness of colouring, for 

 size of truss, and for general effect of inflo- 

 rescence. Again, there was a yellow Calceo- 

 laria, we think, of the Kayii breed, which 

 variety, by the way, seems to do better about 

 London than any of its compeers — a Fuchsia 

 springing, as it were, out of its midst, and 

 modifying that glaring colour, toning it down, 



about them which it is not in the power of as it ought to be done, and stamping the 

 '. man to change ; but still, withal, they are in- window-sill as if it had been designed by the 



