WINDOW GAEDENING. 



not fill up perfectly. It is bright colored, and of good flavor, thougli not first rate. At 

 Boston, it appears, from Hovey'' s Magazine, that all the Cincinnati varieties have proved 

 inferior. McAvoifs Superior, Mr. Hovey says, "is the best flavored of the four, but far 

 inferior to many of the older varieties." Longivortli's Prolific is a good bearer, but 

 it is superior in nothing to some of the older sorts. We learn that at Pittsburg the 

 McAvo^/s Superior has proved almost a failure in every case where it has been tested. 

 The old vexed question of sexes has been revived latterly, but it is a mere waste of 

 time to discuss such a question. It is very well understood, and has been for fifty 

 years, that no variety wanting in stamens will bear a crop by itself. In Europe, the 

 Hautbois have been examples of this kind. Variations and defects in the sexual 

 organs, so-called, arc much more frequent in this country, and in the case of some 

 forms a permanent characteristic. Where pistillate sorts are planted, therefore, a small 

 proportion of staminates must accompany them. 



WINDOW GARDENING AND PLANT CASES. 



For several months we have had numerous inquiries respecting "Wardian Cases" 

 waiting an answer. The following article, with illustrations, which we select from 

 Mcintosh's Book of the Garden, is very complete, embracing a full and satisfactory 

 description of all the most elegant and convenient contrivances for keeping house- 

 plants that are known or in use in England, or on the Continent, where such things 

 have been carried to great perfection. There are thousands of people shut up in cities 

 who can have neither gardens nor green-houses, and yet can not wholly deny them- 

 selves the pleasure of cultivating a few plants ; and this can not be done in the dry 

 atmosphere of living-rooms in a way to aff"ord much pleasure. 



"The necessity for adopting window gardens, Wardian cases, or something equiva- 

 lent, by those who are fond of having plants in their rooms, will, we think, be 

 strengthened by the following remarks by Professor Lindley : 



"'What, it niay be asked, is there in the air of a sitting-room which plants are 

 thus unable to support? Can any thing be purer than the atmosphere of an English 

 drawing-room? Perhaps not; but it is this purity which in part inflicts the injury. 

 Plants would thrive better if it were otherwise — but it is more especially its dryness. Let 

 any one measure the moisture of a sitting-room and the open air, and he will see how gi'eat 

 a difference prevails. We have,' says the learned Professor, ' this moment tested it by 

 Simmon's hygrometer : in the open air this instrument indicates 40°, in a sitting-room 60°. 

 When plants are kept in a dry atmosphere they rapidly lose their water of vegetation; the 

 sides of their pots are robbed at the same time ; and it is impossible for plants to suck out 

 of soil thus partially dried the moisture demanded for the sustenance of their exhausted 

 foliage. Such a state of things is inseparable from a sitting-room. To render the latter 

 congenial to ])lants, it would be uninhabitable by ourselves. The extent to which plants 

 are injured in a common sitting-room is strikingly illustrated by the condition of cut flowers. 

 two clusters of fresh-gathered flowers be introduced into a sitting-room : place the one ^ 

 mouth of a narrow-necked jar of water, and arrange the other upon such a shallow v5 



