i88i.] PLANTS FOR ROOM DECORATION. 53 



subjects in sufficient number and variety to meet the demand, especi- 

 ally during the worst months of the year, which may safely be con- 

 sidered from October to the New Year. 



Many plants are anything but suitable for room decoration, and do 

 not last sufficiently long to pay for the trouble of growing. The task 

 is more difficult still when only a certain class of flowering plants of a 

 choice nature are admired, and those required in large numbers. For 

 example, a vase that will hold a pot 9 or 10 inches in diameter, and that 

 has to be filled with a trained standard Mignonette, and nothing else, 

 until Hybrid Roses can take its place, causes a great deal of work. 

 Mignonette in rooms does not last long, at least the fragrance is soon 

 gone, and the plant must be removed and replaced with another. The 

 damage done to the plant by a short stay in the dwelling-house takes 

 a long time to repair. To accomplish the decoration of rooms suc- 

 cessfully requires a good deal of care and forethought. To maintain 

 a supply for cutting and the ornamentation of plant-houses is not 

 so difficult as to provide large quantities of choice flowering plants 

 suitable for the embellishment of rooms. For this purpose plants 

 have to be grown in pots of various sizes, to suit the different vases. 

 This must be kept in view from the first, or else the work becomes 

 far more difficult. 



Eucharis amazonica is one of the best room plants with which I 

 am acquainted, if grown in 5- or 6-inch pots : the former is used here. 

 In small pots it is easy to manage and to keep a succession of its beau- 

 tiful flowers ; a few can be rested at short intervals, and again intro- 

 duced into heat to throw up their flowers. They stand room decora- 

 tion well, and are scarcely ever injured. It is a fragrant and lovely 

 flower, and commands general admiration. When plants are placed in 

 rooms they often sufi'er considerably from gas; and another evil 

 nearly as bad is careless housemaids opening the windows direct upon 

 some choice tender plant. A vase of Lily of the Valley, produced 

 during November, when delicate and tender, is soon spoiled by cold 

 draughts, and its time of lasting in good condition considerably re- 

 duced. This is by no means the worst evil gardeners have to contend 

 with in room decoration. Some of the most peculiar-shaped things 

 have to be filled with a number of plants for which they are not 

 adapted : plants have to be turned out of their pots, and in some 

 instances half the roots pulled off the outer plants to fit them in so as 

 to produce the desired effect. 



Orchids are amongst the most useful of plants for room decoration, 

 and it is surprising they are not more largely grown. In rooms not 

 lighted with gas they last a long time without injury to the plant, 

 especially cool or intermediate species. What is more choice or beau- 

 tiful than Odontoglossum cirrosum or 0. Alexandras, which will last 

 a month or more in good condition, and can be managed so as to be in 

 bloom during winter if a little extra heat be given while growth is 



