34 THE GREEN-HOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



quantity ; and, to enable us to select, let us look at other 

 green-houses," and gain from the experience of others. 

 Let us visit any green-house in our neighborhood, and care- 

 fully examine the collection : in how many shall we find a 

 dozen really beautiful specimen plants ? Here and there, 

 now and then, a fine, well-bushed, or trained, well-propor- 

 tioned plant may be seen ; but the mass are tall, long- 

 drawn, ungainly, ugly plants, which, aside from their com- 

 panions, possess no beauty or symmetry. How, then, do 

 they appear so well? By grouping; each hides the defects 

 of each, and a stage-full of these ugly, ill-grown plants 

 may often present a fine appearance. But this is not the 

 true end to be gained in floriculture ; in this way we can 

 never approximate to perfection ; the evil grows year 

 by year. 



Of what plants are the collections composed? Plants 

 from every region of the globe, all huddled together in a 

 space not large enough generally to grow those of one 

 country to perfection. A small house, some sixty feet long, 

 will be found to contain a collection of camellias, which 

 flower and grow best in a temperature not above sixty 

 degrees ; ericas, which require about fifty degrees of heat ; 

 azaleas, which will bear any low, dry temperature ; Cape 



