4 WINDOW AND PARLOR GARDENING 
for tropical plants, for at least six or seven months of the year, 
and an occasional low degree of heat above the freezing point 
does not injure any plants, provided the mean annual tempera- 
ture is sufficient. In well-built stone or brick houses the win- 
dows are generally deep and convenient for plant culture. 
They also offer better facilities for placing window-boxes out- 
side in summer, a method universally used in England, and 
forming one of the prettiest features of all English towns and 
villages, where in some parts every window has a box of luxu- 
riant foliage and flowering plants. But every house can be 
made suitable for the culture of at least a few choice plants. 
Growing plants can be used in many ways for home decora- 
tion and nowadays a house, if ever so costly, looks poor and 
tasteless without their proper use. Mantel-pieces, shelves, 
pieces of furniture, stands, tables, and cupboards, all offer some 
suitable place for ornamental plants. 
Many people decorate their rooms with artificial plants— 
senseless caricatures of the real things. It can only be said 
that this shows an extremely bad taste and a hankering after 
outward show. ‘The real plant, when unfolding leaf after leaf 
and blossom after blossom is not merely a beautiful object, it is 
a living being replete with interest ; for it is not only the form 
we admire or the color, but more than anything the mystery 
of life, the wonderful and constant changes working beneath 
our eyes. 
Whether plants have any influence on the health of persons 
living in rooms where they are grown, or not, is a matter of 
conjecture only. In ordinary, well-ventilated houses there is 
no need of plants to purify the atmosphere, nor is there any 
danger to be apprehended from their use. Strong odors, 
whether arising from plants or other sources, may be injurious 
