THE CONSERVATORY. 121 



and as they decb'ne in beauty they can be lifted, and others, 

 in the same sized pots, dropped into the same hole?. The 

 centre, if there be on the establishment store greenhouses, 

 pits, and other nurseries for plants, should be a slab or table, 

 because the plants will be the better for changing, while by 

 this means the conservatory may always be kept filled with 

 flowers. The temperature of the conservatory, in which stove 

 as well as greenhouse plants are arranged, and where forced 

 flowers, which are more tender than either in their actual 

 bloom, contribute to the show, should not be under 50 degrees, 

 because a lower temperature would damage the forced flowers 

 and stove plants, and that atmosphere is not too warm for 

 greenhouse plants ; but the greatest care should be taken to 

 keep it down as nearly to that as possible, otherwise the hard- 

 wooded greenhouse plants would suffer, and the bloom of 

 many others would be shortened. In setting out the centre 

 table, the taller plants should be in the centre, and the shorter 

 ones on each side, the shorter of all being on the outside, so 

 that the plants would form a fine bank sloping on both sides. 

 The table should be a foot narrower than the space left for a 

 bed, for the double purpose of giving room to walk and having 

 room for a row of potted plants at the foot of the table all 

 round. The stove and forced plants to be from time to time 

 brought into the conservatory, should be removed a day or 

 two before to the coolest part of the forcing house or stove, to 

 make the change less sudden ; because if, as the stove gene- 

 rally is, a plant is in a temperature of sixty-five, the sudden 

 removal to fifty will hurt the flowers that are out ; and if the 

 forcing house is above sixty, the same precaution is necessary, 

 as a hardy plant, forced into flower by high temperature, 

 would, by a sudden change of fifteen degrees, be drooping 

 directly. Another precaution necessary is, to remove them as 

 they come into flower, and not wait until the blooms are 

 opened ; a bud even forward will not feel a change that would 

 actually destroy a perfect blossom. 



We need hardly say that it is quite possible to keep a con- 

 servatory well supplied with flowering plants the entire year 

 round. Camellias may be commanded from ISTovember to 

 April ; rhododendrons, and both Indian and American azaleas, 

 January till July ; kalmias, and other Americans, can be 

 made to help out a great part of this time also. Many stove 

 and orchideous plants can be had all winter ; bulbs, from 



