292 FLOWER GARDEN. 



niurns. In the management of the conservatory, abundant 

 air should ^c admitted, and care should be taken not to 

 allow the plants to become drawn, or too tall and spindle- 

 formed by overcrowding. They should be so pruned as to 

 keep them comparatively short and bushy ; but after ail 

 pains have been taken, the time at length arrives when 

 they either disfigure themselves by pressing against the 

 roof-glass, or must submit to the no less distorting process 

 of a violent au^putation. To meet such exigencies, it is re 

 commended that, wherever there is also a green-house, a 

 few plants should be kept in training for the conservatory, 

 and substituted in the room of any that, from excess of 

 growth, become unmanageable. After all, the fourth, fifth, 

 and sixth summers of the conservatory will always be the 

 finest ; and when a longer series of years have gone by, and 

 the plants have outgrown the space allotted to them, per 

 haps the best thing that can be done is to change the whole 

 interior of the house, plants, earth, and all. If this opera 

 tion be anticipated, and for a year or two prepared for, 

 sufficiently large plants may be had in readiness, and the 

 appearance of a well-furnished house be again pretty well 

 attained in a single season. It is scarcely necessary to add, 

 that the neatness which is so desirable everywhere in the 

 flower garden is absolutely indispensable in the conserva 

 tory. 



Stove Plants. There are many beautiful plants, natives 

 of tropical regions, which are cultivated in our stores, but 

 which, owing to the high temperature they require, can be 

 only occasionally visited with pleasure. This may account 

 for the fact that ornamental plant-stoves are seldom found 

 but in first-rate gardens, even where the price of fuel is 

 inconsiderable. It is unnecessary to be minute respecting 

 the culture of dry-stove plants, it being precisely that of 



