Windoiv Greenhouses. 307 



The application of this system to the culture of the pelar- 

 gonium is somewhat hazardous of the charge of presumption 

 in such a person as myself, because I suppose you have al- 

 ready given directions for that in some of the numbers of 

 The Florist I have been so unfortunate as not to see ; and 

 anything I were to say on the subject that you have already 

 said would be superfluous, and what might differ from your 

 instructions, I am persuaded would be erroneous. Only I 

 would repeat, that any person who will use common sense 

 and common care, may succeed in the culture of any of our 

 ordinary fancy flowers. 



Of these, by much the most useful for a window, and 

 which I expect will always retain its place in this respect, is 

 the pelargonium ; .and, as I have no room to spare, I confine 

 myself to this. You will believe 1 have no spare room when 

 I tell you I am a curate, with a family of eight grown-up 

 persons, in latitude 53° 29** 30''' on the Greenwich meridian, 

 in an agricultural village that has no house in it larger than a 

 cottage, and mine is no way remarkable among its fellows, 

 of which it is far from being the largest. Yet, witliout any 

 other convenience than a cottage window, I grow, in very 

 creditable condition, about thirty varieties (a plant of each) 

 of the best pelargoniums : enough to make my room a blaze 

 of beauty during the whole blooming season. 



Now, on the supposition that my thirty plants are estab- 

 lished in their pots, and hardened afterwards in the open air, 

 and that it is time to bring them in-doors, (this year it was 

 on or about old Michaelmas-day I housed them,) I will tell 

 you where I put them, and how I treat them when there. 



I have no south or south-east window in the house : the 

 aspect is south-west ; but there is a small room in the front, 

 of which, as it is my dressing room, 1 can appropriate the 

 whole window to my plants. And' I have done it in this 

 way, in order to make the small space hold as many pots, 

 give them as much light, and bring them as close to the 

 glass, as possible. The glass of the window is 3 feet 9 

 inches broad, and of a proportionate height. This, therefore, 

 is the breadth of the stand I had made in the ordinary way, 



