146 LIFE OF A TREE. 
windows. Just opposite the hotel where we 
stayed for some time, was one of the prettiest 
flower-decked windows in the world. Rich green 
creepers clustered up each side of the window, 
and met in a graceful arch above, from which 
their painted blossoms hung elegantly down; and 
on the window-sill was a box as full as it could 
hold of all sorts of flowers, the sweet odour of 
which wafted country remembrances into the 
room at every breath of air.. All these plants 
seemed as strong, green, and healthy, as if, in- 
stead of growing in the very heart of the metro- 
polis of the empire, they had been luxuriating 
outside some cottage door deep in the country. 
Mr. Ward, a surgeon in London, has contrived 
a very pretty miniature conservatory, in which, 
even in London, plants may be grown of a small 
size, in all their country freshness. These cases 
are made of glass, and are constructed so as to fit 
down over the plants, and in a great measure 
exclude the air. The plants are placed in some 
good mould ina tin box with gravel at the bot- 
tom, and are then properly watered once, and the 
glass cover is put over them. They will now 
grow luxuriantly, and do not require watering 
