The Canadian Horticulturist. 

 THE PLANT ROOM. 



217 



Not every one can afford the luxury of a greenhouse for flowers in winter, 

 but it is very easy to add a plant room to any house, opening off the dining, or 

 ., ^^ ^ .^ ^ , , .//./. sitting room, where with any extra fire, a 



good collection of window plants may be 

 grown. This plan will add much to the 

 beauty of the adjoining apartment, and 

 will furnish beautiful plants for decora- 

 tion without much expense. Fig. 669 

 from the "Country Gentleman," shows 

 such a plant room, which opens out of 

 the dining room, and here is afforded a 

 chance to insert a light door frame with 

 open-work around it, which will let in a 

 flood of light, and many glimpses of grow- 

 ing and flowering plants. A suggestion 

 for such open-work is presented herewith. 

 Large doorways with portieres are between 

 the hall and parlor, and the parlor and 

 dining room. The china closet opens 

 from both the dining room and the kitchen. 

 The kitchen sink is against this same wall. 

 The plant room may have a glass door com- 

 municating with the southwest piazza for 

 summer use, if desired. 





Fio. 



669. — Doorway between Dinin(5 

 AND Plant Room. 



i 



Sowing Small Seeds. — Others besides amateurs are bothered at times 

 to scatter small seeds over the bed or into the drill in the way the careful man 

 always likes to see seed sowing done. A very simple contrivance for sowing 

 radish, onion and other small, smooth seeds, thinly and evenly, consists of a 

 bottle, a cork and a quill. Say an ounce of radish seed has to be sown. 

 It is put into a bottle, mixed up with a pint of very coarse sand, 

 well and evenly. A gimlet hole is made through the cork and a 

 quill, or magnum-bonum pen, put in. The lines for the seed are 

 marked across the bed at three inches apart, and the bottle being turned, 

 the sand and seeds slip through evenly and gradually. The faster the 

 bottle is moved along the row the thinner the seed is sown. The same 

 plan may be adopted with parsley, carrot, parsnip, carraway and other 

 uneven and rough seeds, only they must be first rubbed along with the 

 sand to break the hooked spines by which they cling to each other. 

 With lettuce, and other light seeds, a lighter material, such as ashes, may be 

 used. It is an advantage to have the plants in regular lines, because it is easier 

 to weed them, and greater facilities exist for hoeing and giving water and licjuid 

 manure. — Ex. 



Fio. 670. 



