76 PKINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. II. 



34", the plants will be benefited by having the 



window and door of the room open. They cannot 



have too much fresh air at any season of the year, if 



j they are not grown under a Wardian case ; for the 



I exterior air always contains a due proportion of 



'moisture, whilst the air of a room is as invariably 



drier than is beneficial to plants. 



A due supply of moisture in the air, as well as in 

 the soil, is absolutely necessary to our room plants. 

 To obtain this in the best available degree, little 

 porous troughs constantly filled with water should be 

 kept on the stand among the pots ; and the saucers 

 of the pots themselves, if made according to Hunt s 

 plan, may always have a little water remaining in 

 them. The application of water to the soil requires 

 far more attention than it usually receives. Room 

 plants mostly are the proteges of the ladies, who ad- 

 minister the water with their own hands ; and so long 

 as the novelty and leisure prompt to this attention, 

 all goes well ; but no room plant ever existed, per- 

 haps, which was not at some period of its existence 

 left to the tender mercies of a housemaid, with the 

 frequent usual consequence of a deluge of water, cold 

 from the pump, after the roots had become heated 

 and parched by days of total abstinence. Plants so 

 treated cannot flourish. The water should be allowed 

 to stand in the kitchen for some hours before it is 

 applied to the plants, so that it may be as warm or 



