328 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



grow in a pot. The directions for the culture of hardy and 

 greenhouse plants should be followed as nearly as possible. 

 In the dwelHng-house we cannot give so much air, nor can 

 we give a damp atmosphere. The next to this in efficacy is, 

 to water the plants overhead in the evening, and shade them 

 from the morning sun. The geranium appears to be the best 

 of all plants adapted for a house, for we have known one to 

 live and do well for more than ten years, and cover a window 

 with its branches and leaves. The old oak-leaf, the horseshoe, 

 and a dozen others of the old sorts, celebrated for the peculi- 

 arity of their foliage, and the scent of it, seem quite at home 

 in a dwelling-house, if they are regularly attended to. But 

 the show pelargoniums are so much gayer, that people are no 

 longer satisfied with their old friends. The new ones are not, 

 however, so permanent in their bloom, nor so free in their 

 growth. The scarlet geraniums are nearly all calculated for 

 house culture. The air of a room is too dry for the fuchsia. 

 The blooms often fall off. Again, no plant will stand the 

 fumes of gas, and many a plant has disappointed the purchaser 

 on that account alone. If the temperature of a room be pretty 

 even, and there is no fire lighted, the camellia japonica may 

 do pretty well. Acacias generally will do ; but heaths, the 

 Botany Bay varieties, ought to do weU in ahnost any room 

 without fire. Many of them are nearly hardy ; that is to say, 

 they will bear several degrees of frost ; but the sun must not 

 reach them to thaw them rapidly. We are now writing of 

 dwelling-houses in the country. In manufacturing towns, 

 there is more difficulty. But the scarlet geranium, and aU the 

 old-fashioned sorts, ^vill do almost anywhere ; and bulbs may 

 be made to keep up a succession of flowers, from the time the 

 snowdrop begins in January, right tlirough February, March, 

 April, and May ; for if the roots are sound when purchased, 

 and are potted in good stuff, or glassed mth good river water 

 — but the most convenient for glassing are hyacinths and nar- 

 cissus ; and by begiiming to pot in September or October, and 

 keeping them down in the cold cellar, you may bring up the 

 first half-dozen in a month, and the next half-dozen in two 

 months, you will have a succession of flowers even with the 

 same sorts. Every plant that will thrive in a greenhouse 

 may be taken to the dwelling-house before blooming, be allowed 

 to flower there, and then be brought back again, without suf- 

 fering more than it wiU recover when put back again. 



