THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[January, 



fashioned lady gardeners (and may we ever bless 

 them for the many lessons they have, taught us !) 

 take every opportunity to set their window-plants 

 out of doors when a warm shower happens to 

 occur. In winter a rain at a temperature of 40° 

 or 45°, which often occurs, might be called a 

 "warm shower." Cold water does not have half 

 the injurious effect on plante that cold air has. 

 When plants get accidentally frozen, the best 

 remedy in the world is to dip them at once in 

 cold water and set them in the shade to thaw. 



It is better to keep in heat in cold weather by 

 covering, where possible, than to allow it to 

 escape, calculating to make it good by fire-heat, 

 which is, at best, but a necessary evil. Wliere 

 bloom, is in demand, nothing less than 55° will 

 accomplish the object ; though much above that 

 is not desirable, except for tropical hot-house 

 plants. Where these plants are obliged to be 

 wintered in a common greenhouse, they should 

 be kept rather dry, and not be encouraged much 

 to grow, or they may rot away. 



After Cyclamens have done blooming, it is 

 usual at this season to dry them off; but we 

 do best with them by keeping them growing till 

 spring, then turning them out in the open border, 

 and re-pot in August for winter flowering. 



Mignonette is much improved by occasional 

 waterings with liquid manure. 



In managing other plants, where there are 

 several plants or varieties of one species, and 

 command of different temperatures, it is a com- 

 mon plan to bring some forward a few weeks 

 earlier than others in the higher heat, thus 

 lengthening the season of bloom. This applies 

 particularly to camellias and azalias ; the former 

 are however, not so easily forced as the latter, 

 being liable to drop their buds, unless care be 

 taken to regulate the increased temperature 

 gradually. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



-ESTHETICS IN CONSERVATORIES. 



No. 2. 



BY F. W. P. 



The London Crystal-Palace, of 1851, designed 

 by the then only Mr., afterwards Sir Joseph Pax- 

 ton, the gardener to the Duke of Devonshire, 

 was a clever structure, meeting the requirements 

 imposed by the government on the architects 

 better than any other plan proposed, and as 



unique as it was in its conception, grand in its 

 dimensions, but imposing only on vulgar minds 

 or coarse and uncultivated tastes, as quantity and 

 size always do, it never was a beauty nor ever 

 claimed to be by its own originator. It was at 

 the beginning intended to serve but a temporary 

 purpose, and the permission for its erection was 

 granted upon the special condition, that it should 

 be removed immediately after the World's fair 

 was over. Its re-erection for permanency was 

 an after thought ; but the idea that it might serve 

 as a plant-house never entered the mind of 

 Paxton. He knew too much for that, and what 

 he might have done in this direction, if afforded 

 an oi^portunity, may be surmised after a careful 

 and intelligent study of the Conservatory at 

 Chatsworth. The mistaken adoption of the style 

 and the leading features of the Crj'stal Palace 

 for horticultural structures, only proved a gross 

 ignorance of the fundamental and indispensable 

 requirements of contrivances for the mainten- 

 ance and the proper display of plants. 



To intrust the construction of them, if not 

 carte blanche to engineers, at any rate with too 

 much unwarranted faith in their superior genius 

 and skill, is a great mistake. We ought to re- 

 member that engineers are technicists, more or 

 less scientific mechanics, and as a class have 

 never shown much of an artistic turn of mind, 

 nor anything like infallibility. When in the con- 

 struction of our parks and conservatories, they 

 are invited to furnish just as much and as little 

 of their peculiar skill and ingenuity as is wanted 

 or indispensal)le, they may prove very useful ; 

 but to make them the directing minds and final 

 authorities in matters of science and art, for 

 Avhich they never had sufficient time nor oppor- 

 tunities to qualifj' themselves, is a mistake 

 which is sure to bring about such results as are 

 already visible in but too many places, and the 

 repetition of which ought to be discontinued. 



Horticulturists and landscape gardeners may 

 easily add to their stock of knowledge what little 

 is required of engineering, to get along without 

 them; and before engineers can undertake to 

 supersede the professional gardeners, they have 

 to be initiated in mysteries beyond the power of 

 screws and levers. 



That monstrous bubble of glass in Kew-garden 

 (constructed by a man whose legitimate business 

 was to build railroad depots, and who knew well 

 enough how, with iron and glass, to ard^ over 

 wide spaces for the accommodation of several 

 locomotives abreast), is, as a plant-house, about 



