76 A Greenhouse for a Short Purse. 



grown ill boxes filled with rotted leaves, were truly Oriental in beauty. 

 Bulbs kept up a succession of bloom, from the earliest crocus and Van 

 Thoi tulip to the last hyacintlis, anemones, and ranunculus. But noth- 

 ing was more lovely than the Persian cyclamen, waving its thick array 

 of mimic mitres, fair and pure, above their blood-stained rims, for twelve 

 weeks long. 



Over them all was trained on one side a Solfaterre, and on the other 

 a glorious Marechal Neil, the emperor among roses, in the early spring, 

 before great heats aflect his glorious color and magnificent size. 



This great rose, by the way, has been criticised as being too tender 

 to suit the extreme north, and as injured by heat in the far south. The . 

 writer would like to say that, when grown in a cool house, in this lati- 

 tude, nothing in rose-nature can approach it ; even the glowing de- 

 scriptions of our imaginative catalogue writers fail to do it justice ; cer- 

 tainly no engraving that has yet appeared in this country fairly shows 

 of what it is capable ; for one flower, with accompanying foliage, will 

 form bouquet enough for a large vase. Out doors, it is perfectly hardy 

 here without the slightest protection, and very prolific of bloom ; too 

 much so, as the flowers are far inferior in size to their condition when 

 the plant is pot-grown, and a little root-bound. The color is lighter 

 also in the open air as the summer advances. 



To return to my miniature house. Perhaps northern amateurs may 

 be somewhat surprised to learn one of the chief ornaments was Bcg07iia 

 Rex, forming a great mass of leaves, with twenty-five heads of bloom, 

 and enriching the centre of my table, the whole winter through, with 

 its contrasts of silver and brown. Even Cissus discolor., so truly .por- 

 phyrogcnitus, and child of tropic heats, was so far tractable that it fur- 

 nished leaves still exquisitely marked for the Christmas bouquets ; then 

 cut down, covered an inch or so with rotted manure, placed on a shelf 

 next the glass, and kept nearly dry until April, it pushed forth with full 

 life and strength again with the hot days of early summer. 



The writer docs not present his little house as a model, Init simply to 

 call attention to the value of similar cheaply-made schools of instruction 

 for the management of a building more ambitious and expensive, per- 

 suaded that the happiness of the household incident to the successful 



