HOUSE PLANTS. 375 



Let no one forget the claims of the great family of ferns. Many of the 

 species are evergreen. They give a fresh, verdant appearance to the conserva- 

 tory when gay summer blooms are past ; or if grown under a glass shade or 

 temple they form a beautiful ornament to the dwelling-house at all seasons. 

 The different kinds with which I am acquainted are remarkable for grace and 

 elegance of form. The large leaved brake is a very fine specimen ; the leaves 

 are almost entirely bordered by a thickened margin sustaining the organs of 

 fructification. 



Adianlum formosum and acvltratum, two species of maiden hair, have the 

 glossy black stems and delicate leaves so well known in the British maiden 

 hair fern ; while the silver bi-ake seems a reminiscence of the sea, with its slen- 

 der, weed-like foliage. 



A hint to miguonette growers will, I hope, be pardoned, even if it savors of 

 repetition, for this modest flower, with its fresh, wholesome fragrance cannot be 

 too lai'gely disseminated. It is sometimes sown in small pots for want of room; 

 but where space is no object, it gives less trouble and succeeds equally well 

 when sown at once in the pots in which it is to flower. Many complain that 

 they lose their mignonette in winter ; this is owing to its being kept too damp. 

 It should have little or no water for about three months during the dull season, 

 and care should be taken to keep it from drip, which is sure to kill whatever 

 plant it falls upon. When small pots are used, particular care need not bo 

 taken to have the soil very rich, provided it is light ; but when sown at once in 

 flowering pots, richer material should be used, draining well, and placing on the 

 top of the crocks, in the bottom of the pots, flaky pieces of decayed manure for the 

 double purpose of affording nourishment to the plant when coming into bloom, and 

 to keep the soil from choking up the drainage. Autumn sown plants shifted into 

 larger pots at Christmas will bloom till May; and another sowiug uow will succeed 

 them, after which it may be had plentifully ; and no amount can be too large 

 in the gpcn ground. Unpromising plants, if topped back about this time, come 

 in nicely for Avinter boxes in May. Pots of them may be set among stocks, 

 geraniums, or other dwarf plants, the box filled up with rich, light soil, and 

 finished off with a good watering to settle the earth around the roots. Boxes 

 thus arranged are beautiful ornaments for the window-sill ; the geraniums or 

 other flowers giving brilliancy and the mignonette fragrance. 



In its native country, Barbary, this fragile plant is a shrub and not an an 

 nual, as with us. It should always be sown in a light sandy soil, as when 

 sown in a stiff soil it loses its fragrance. To obtain the tree mignonette, a 

 vigoi-ous plant from the common kind sown in April should be choseu, put into 

 a pot by itself, and all summer the blossom buds to be taken off as fast as they 

 appear. In the autumn the lower side shoots must be taken off, so as to form 

 the plant into a miniature tree. It may afterwards be transplanted into a lar- 

 ger pot with soil formed of sand, and turf broken into small pieces. The 

 plant should be kept in a warm room all winter, regularly watered every day, 

 and in the spring the stem will begin to appear woody. The second summer 

 the same treatment should be observed, and the following spring it wall have 

 bark on its trunk and be completely a shrub. It may now be suffered to 

 flower, and its blossoms will be delightfully fragrant ; they will be produced 

 every summer for many years. 



Among the tenants of the plant-stand, a few specimens of foliage plants, or 

 those more dependent on their leaves than flowers for beauty, should find 

 place. First and foremost stands the Cissus discolor, whose charms are en- 

 hanced by durability, remaining the same all the year round. (Some of these 

 rival in the richness of their tints the most gorgeous flow^ers, and the species 

 above mentioned is one of the most marked. Tlie leaf is heart-shaped, with 

 fine indentations on the edge, and the rich velvet of its upper surface is inde- 

 scribable. The centre rib and principal veins are marked by various shades 



