Greenhome and Stove Plants, greenhouse plants. 



red spider. In such a house two fuui'- 

 inch pipes, flow and return, all round 

 under the outside stages, will be required. 

 For retarding purposes, such as keeping 

 back a portion of the stock of many kinds 

 of plants with a view to prolong the 

 season of their flowering, a lean-to house 

 facing northwards, with wall at back, is 

 a structure that is very useful, and off'ers 

 advantages that cannot be had with houses 

 fully under the sun's influence. Fiont 

 lights and top ventilators should be j)ro- 

 vided and made to work similarly to those 

 ad\'ised for the greenhouse. 



Light. — In plant life one of the first 

 essentials is light. Certainly thei'e are 

 many things that ^\dll exist for a time 

 with an insufficiency of it, and, when 

 completely at rest, some others will bear 

 the complete exclusion of light ; but where 

 any activity in vegetable life exists, there 

 light must l3e present in sufficient quanti- 

 ties to supply the necessities of plants 

 according to their individual requirements. 

 All plants that require the protection of a 

 glass covering, even with only the applica- 

 tion of sufficient heat to exclude frost, 

 exist under conditions more or less arti- 

 ficial, and they become to some extent 

 inured to the partial absence of some of 

 the conditions existing when in a state of 

 Nature ; but so far as we have been able 

 to observe, under such conditions they 

 require the presence of something to com- 

 pensate them for the loss they suffer. For 

 instance, any plant grown under glass 

 cannot possibly receive nearly the amount 

 of fresh air it enjoys in its native habi- 

 tat. Ail' and light are the elements that 

 strengthen and solidify the soft tender 

 shoots and young immature leaves of grow- 

 ing plants. As the first of these all-essential 

 agents cannot be given in quantities equal 

 to what the plants receive in a state of 

 Nature, we must try to make up for its 

 absence by giving them the greatest pos- 

 sible amount of light. Any one who 

 is at all donbtfiU as to light being in 

 some measure able to compensate vegetable 

 life for an insufficiency of air, may learn 

 s(nnething by noticing plants of several 

 varieties of common British Heath that 

 will grow and luxuriate for years in an 

 Orchid basket hung up within a few 

 inches of the glass. Here all the condi- 

 tions under which the plants exist naturally 

 are changed, and had it not been for the 

 amount of light they received they would 

 have succumbed. We have long since 

 come to the conclusion that the necessity 

 for giving to that portion of a plant above 

 the soil — its leaves and branches — the 

 greatest po.ssible amount of light is of as 



great importance as the necessary supply 

 of water to its underground parts, the 

 roots ; and that in the class of plants 

 under consideration a great number of 

 failures are attributable, not only to the 

 use of daik, unsuitable houses, but to 

 the fact of the plants not being elevated 

 sufficiently near the glass. 



Whilst on the subject of light it will be 

 necessary to say a few words on the posi- 

 tion in which plants require to be jdaced 

 in the houses in which they are grown. 

 Their general wellbeing depends much 

 more upon tliis than the way in which 

 they are frequently treated in this respect 

 would lead us to suppose. We often see 

 plants in even good light houses standing 

 in such a position as would lead to the 

 impression that the simple fact of their 

 being under the protection of the house 

 was thought sufficient. In conservatories, 

 or houses that are principally kept gay 

 by the temporary introduction of plants 

 whilst in flower, the most effective arrange- 

 ment must be considered, and the plants 

 placed wliere and in such manner as will 

 give the best general effect, and during the 

 comparatively short time they occupy such 

 structures, and the little growth that most 

 plants make whilst flowering, if they are 

 not too much crowded they will not re- 

 ceive serious harm. It is in the houses in 

 which the plants make their growth, where 

 they are situated for the greater portion of 

 the year, that it is necessary to so place 

 them tliat they will receive all the light 

 possible, by elevating them as near to the 

 roof as they can be. This is even more 

 important during the early stages of the 

 plants' existence than when they get 

 larger, for very much of subsequent health 

 depends upon the strength and vigour that 

 a plant acquires during the early stages of 

 its giowth. Any one who is in the habit 

 of seeing Covent Garden Market cannot 

 fail to notice the profusion of flowers 

 produced by comparatively small plants. 

 If he has the opportunity of seeing these 

 plants at home with the growers, he will 

 see that through the whole course of their 

 existence the one consideration above all 

 others is, to keep them near the glass. 

 Arranged in this way, whilst plants are 

 small, they certainly have not so nice an 

 eft'ect in the houses they occupy, but their 

 condition as to health and general appear- 

 ance, when they get to something like the 

 size they are required to be grown to, will 

 fully compensate for this, and will be 

 much more satisfactory than the study of 

 the most effective arrangement in theii 

 early stages of gi'owth. 



Air. — The admission of air to green- 



