T?ie J^ern Iloiise at IllU/feld. 3C1 



tlien there are the heliotrope, geranium, bouvardia, begonia, jessamine, azaleas, ferns, 

 fuchsias in eijual quantity and variety. 



To go through these extensive houses is absolutely bewildering : and while one 

 ■would imagine that the establishment has the capacity to supply the whole New York 

 market, it in reality supplies only a small part of the flowers demanded by the retail 

 trade. During the coming season Mr. Pell estimates the sales from the gardens at 

 about thirty thousand dollars. This estimate includes cut flowers during the winter 

 and bedding out plants for sales next spring. 



Mr. Herman Yiser, the gardener in charge of the growing departments of the 

 garden, estimates that they will cut flowers this season as follows: Of carnations, 

 from three to four thousand a day ; rosebuds, from two to three thousand daily ; callas, 

 from five hundred to one thousand ; ten thousand geranium leaves ; and heliotropes, 

 camellias, azaleas, Engli.sh, or as they are commonly called, wild violets, in like 

 proportion. 



Di'tnatid of the livia'tl 1'ftide, 



None of these great producing establishments send their perishable wares to the 

 market, but orders are received from the retail dealers daily, and are tilled as nearly 

 as possible. During the winter season the demand for flowers by the retail florists 

 is iinmen«e, and at holiday time and Easter the orders are so great that thc}'^ cannot 

 be filled in the neighborhood of New York. — The Evenmg Post, New York. 



[to hk continued.] 



The Fern House at Hillfield. 



ri"^HE Frontispiece this month illustrates the interior of a celebrated Fern House at 

 -"- Hillfield, near Reigate, England, of which The Gavdoiers Chruiiide thus speaks: 



" The Fern House, of which the central portico is seen in the engraving, is some- 

 what T shaped. Of course it is crammed full of plants; equally, of course, they are 

 in excellent health. This is due to the careful manner in which the requirements are 

 studied. The house in fpestion is not all on a level ; it is upstairs and downstairs 

 if we may so speak. One portion is on one level, one on another. The heating 

 apparatus and the ventilation correspond ; the consequence is there are several dis- 

 tinct climates in one house, and in doubtful cases the plants are shifted from clime to 

 clime, till that one is found which best suits the requirements of the case. The 

 center of the house is occupied by a projecting bow, on which is placed a good speci- 

 men of Blec/mum corcovadense. Here are also fine specimens of Gleichenia flabellata, 

 nestling under whose shade were blooming plants of Grijfima hyaciutkhia. In 

 another part of the house was the curious Tupistra, with bunches of berry-like fruit 

 like so many grapes." 



We observe that in modern American greenhouses the preference of popularity 



seems to be given to Ferns, Dracaena, Marantas and Orchids — of them all, none are 



so easily managed, or so interesting as well as decorative as the Ferns, and even in 



Window Gardens the Fern Family find a congenial home, at once attractive and easily 



accommodated to the atmosphere of the parlor. 



