120 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



desire to see geraniums in perfection, we must go where they 

 are grown without heat, and with plenty of room, light, and 

 air ; where they support themselves instead of requiring 

 props, and where the colour and texture of the flowers are as 

 superior as the growth of the plants. Treat the geranium 

 like the camelha and the heath, the epacris and the azalea, 

 and you will have colour, health, size, and fine foliage ; force 

 it, and you impair all ; but as forced plants have only to be 

 compared with forced plants, the distinction is not seen ; in 

 short, the greenhouse, the single house for the assemblage of 

 all moderately hardy things, or rather, moderately tender 

 things, is the most interesting of the horticultural buildings : 

 it is the cottage conservatory, the pet house of lady gardeners. 

 It stands always open in mild weather ; there is always some- 

 thing inviting in it, and it can be always made to supply 

 a few violets, a bit of mignonette, or a camellia bloom, any 

 time in the winter. 



THE CO¥SEEYATOEY. 



This may be called the show-room of the garden, and should 

 be attached to the house, because it will be visited in all 

 weathers ; generally speaking, it adjoins and opens out of a 

 principal room ; and as it should be a kind of winter garden, 

 it should be large enough to walk in. Of the form and plan, 

 which depend on a diversity of tastes among builders and 

 owners, we must say but little, nor describe at great length. 

 There are some essential points to attend to, and so that these 

 are noticed, we may leave the external style to the artist and 

 his employer. 



First, the larger it is, the more convenient and effective ; 

 on this account we begrudge every pound laid out in orna- 

 ment at the expense of size. It would cost as much to build 

 a trumpery thing of ten feet square after some fashions, as 

 it would to erect a plain house of fifteen feet by thirty ; and 

 this is the smallest we should care to possess, for it merely 

 allows of an eighteen-inch border all round a three-feet path, 

 and a slab, or, if preferred, a bed of six feet in the middle, 

 and this is as little as can be made subservient to an effective 

 display. 



The conservatory borders may be kept furnished with 

 potted plants, whether bulbs, annuals, or perennial shrubs, 



