CONSERVATOEIES. 



house in the event of sickness, or totally removed to give room to others more valu- 

 able. When the stronger and more robust-growing plants are planted in a bed of 

 prepared soil, which is in general, in conservatories, made too rich and too deep, they 

 outgrow all bounds ; even the house itself is not sufficient to contain them. They 

 injure or destroy their less vigorous, and, very often, more valuable neighbors; and, 

 after a year or two, they themselves have to be cut out and thrown away, after having 

 destroyed all around them, by overshadowing them, and robbing them of their share 

 of nourishment at the roots. By confining them to large tubs, boxes, or pots, the 

 latter of these evils is completely remedied, their extra luxuriance is checked, a dispo- 

 sition to produce more flowers, in proportion to their size, is brought on ; and often, 

 in summer, some of the more hardy may be set out of doors, to give breathing room, 

 as it were, to the others ; and when the house becomes too much crowded, the dupli- 

 cates, or those least interesting to the proprietor, may be removed altogether, and dis- 

 posed of in a variety of ways. It is quite absurd in this country to attempt to grow 

 the trees of the tropics, or even of extra-tropical countries, to anything like their natu- 

 ral size. Who would be so bold, let us only ask, as to construct a house in which a 

 single plant of Araucaria excelsa could develop itself to even half its natural size? — 

 or who would find accommodation for a full-grown tree of Adansonia digitato, the 

 very trunk of which, if we are to believe travelers, is equal to the diameter of almost 

 the largest glass-house built in Europe? As it is therefore quite impossible for us to 

 exhibit the trees, and, indeed, many even of the herbaceous plants of distant countries, 

 of their full natural size, let us be content to raise them as it were by scale, and, by 

 good cultivation and proper accommodation, cause them to develop their natural char- 

 acter somewhat diminished from the original in dimensions. 





