THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. vii 



window gardens, have the means of providing 

 similar objects of enjoyment. Their wealth enables 

 them to gratify their tastes ; and these are not 

 fettered by any considerations of cost. But in our 

 cities and towns, the immediate surroundings of 

 the poor whose existence is too commonly cheer- 

 less and sad are painfully dismal. Penury and 

 suffering too add piquancy to the depression which 

 is naturally caused by such dismal surroundings : 

 and the efforts of those who have spent time and 

 money in the endeavour to relieve the dull 

 monotony of the lives of the poor, have been 

 directed to a noble end. 



Whilst however the poor of our large towns feel 

 more keenly than the well-to-do or the rich the 

 necessity of having in or about their dwellings 

 some such enlivening influence as would be pro- 

 duced by the presence of plants or flowers, it is the 

 rich who, from their more abundant means, have 

 adopted "window gardening" to the greatest ex- 

 tent. But amongst all classes of town dwellers the 

 recent increase in the delightful practice is no doubt 

 due to the same cause. Our big towns and cities 



