THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 37 



week for fresh ones from the conservatory, if you can, and turn 

 them round every day, so that all sides may have the benefit of 

 light equally. Never by any means allow them to get dry. The 

 air in a room is always dry and arid, causing the moisture in the 

 ball of the plant to dry up very quickly. If it ever happens that 

 you allow the ball of a plant to get so dry that the soil shrinks from 

 the pot all round, the best way to moisten the soil thoroughly again 

 is to stand the pot nearly up to the rim in a vessel of water for half 

 an hour or so. 



Often I have seen poor ill-treated plants returning to the green- 

 house they had left so fresh and beautiful, looking as limp and dried 

 up as if the hot breath of a furnace had swept over them, and as 

 begrimed with dust as if they had travelled a dusty road for a long 

 summer's day. Plants neglected thus have their beauty spoiled for 

 a whole season, when a little more care and attention bestowed on 

 them would have returned them little the worse for their change of 

 quarters. 



Plants in rooms are usually placed in flats or pans for the 

 superfluous water to collect in. This water should never be allowed 

 to remain, as it tends to sour the ball of the plant by too much 

 moisture and exclusion of air from the roots. 



When arranging plants in ornamental flower-stands a good bold 

 specimen plant should be chosen for the centre, and the smaller 

 ones grouped tastefully around it with a free unrestricted natural 

 grace, and all stiff formal arrangements should be avoided. This 

 can best be done by a judicious mixture of graceful ferns. No 

 other kind of plants break stiff outlines and bring out graceful 

 effects so well as they. When trailing plants are used, they are 

 better allowed to grow in their natural way than trained over globe 

 or fan-shaped trellises. When trained in this fashion, on trellises, 

 they have a stiff unnatural appearance, far from pleasing to the eye 

 of taste. 



Small single specimens of fine foliage plants are excellent for 

 brackets on the walls, such as Crotons, Begonias, Draccenas, Cala- 

 diums, Mcus, and many others ; also ferns, mosses, and flowering 

 plants. The common Ivy is the best of all trailing plants for the 

 decoration of rooms and passages by means of brackets. A con- 

 tinuous wreath can be carried along a wall in this way ; or it may 

 be draped around the window recess, or formed into screens for the 

 drawing-room by being planted in ornamental boxes and trained 

 over a wire trellis. 



On the floor in the window recess, and in the empty fire-places, 

 during summer, tasteful ferneries can be got up. In a fire-place 

 especially, a natural screen of ferns, palms, and such like, is far 

 before any other contrivance we see used for the same purpose ; 

 and if a small lead pipe be laid on from the water supply, a pretty 

 little fountain can be had to play among the plants. 



In the arranging of cut ilowers in vases or trumpet glasses, you 

 should always avoid using too many flowers. This is where a great 

 many err; they crowd in flower after flower indiscriminately, and 

 the result is a confused clumsy mass. Crowding of flowers should 



February. 



