WINDOW GARDENING. 



air that destroys plants in sitting-rooms and great towns, and not impurities in the 

 gaseous constitution of the atmosphere, the importance of which has been singularly 

 overrated. By enclosing plants in tightly-glazed cases, light is admitted, soot is 

 excluded, and any desirable amount of moisture is securable. There are, however, 

 some practical difficulties in the way of growing plants in close moist cases, which 

 amateurs unacquainted with the nature of plants are unable to overcome. Among 

 these difficulties, the principal is the adjustment of the amount of moisture to which 

 a plant is exposed in one of these cases, to the surrounding heat, and to its own 

 nature. Another is the prevention of dew upon the inside of the glass, by which the 

 interior is often entirely hidden. These are practical difficulties that must exercise 

 the ingenuity of cultivators. Upon the former we can give no information, because 

 each species requires a special consideration. As to the deposit of the dew upon the 

 glasses, we may observe, that as this is owing to the inside of the case being colder 

 than the air that surrounds it, the only course to take is, either to warm the internal 

 air by some means, or to open a door in the case for a short time ; and as the latter 

 is the most easy, and is quite efficient, it will be the more generally adopted.' 



" Plants have been kept in Wardian cases for upwards of twelve months in good 

 health and condition without renewal, and all this while but with one supply of water. 

 ' This to some may appear strange, but the principles of evaporation and condensa- 

 tion sufficiently explain it. The heat of the sun, or even of the room in which the 

 case stands, naturally produces evaporation through the day time, and during night 

 the process of condensation takes place, and the moisture which has been evaporated 

 is returned to the soil. These two principles are in active operation alternately day 

 and night. It ought to be noticed, however, that owing to the growth of the plants, 

 as well as other contingent causes, such as apertures in the framework, the quantity 

 of moisture in time becomes lessened ; and when this is the case, a fresh supply will 

 be necessary. As monotony and continuity cease in time to afford gratification, and 

 as it may happen, no doubt, that some of the plants will grow beyond their bounds, 

 fresh removals and replacements will be found necessary.' — Gard. Jour. Add to 

 this, much of the pleasure to be derived from plants growing under one's care, and 

 in one's drawing-room, would be lost, were we not allowed to arrange and re-arrange 

 them, according to our taste and fancy. 



" M. Victor Paquet, in '■Almanac Horticolc^ speaking of window gardening as 

 followed in Belgium, says : 'The balconies are turned into green-houses, and you 

 may find, on the fifth or sixth floor, a miniature stove, gay with the brightest flowers, 

 and the greenest foliage. In Paris there are many such contrivances, especially two 

 on the fourth floor of a house in the Boulevard de la Madeleine. Ilere are to be 

 found the rarest plants. Camellias grow in the open ground ; Passifloras cling to the 

 columns ; the creeping Fig forms a carpet upon the walls,' (Ficus sdpidacea, we pre- 

 sume,) ' and water plants start up from tiny basins, curiously contrived in the solid 

 brickwork. By turning a screw a sti-eam of limpid water flows down a rock, from 

 whose crevices start up Ferns and Locopodiums, and such things. And what'is it that 

 adjoins this little paradise but a bed-room !' 



