CHAPTER IV 



FOURTH WEEK IN JANUARY 



FEW modern houses are without some glass structure ; 

 it may be large or small, shady or sunny, a porch, a 

 greenhouse, or a conservatory, but it will largely depend 

 upon the knowledge and taste of the owners whether or 

 not this corner of the house is the delightful spot it should 

 be, refreshing to the eye with rich colouring and full of 

 fragrance. 



The most common mistake in furnishing a greenhouse is 

 to procure plants without much reference to their require- 

 ments, and to try to grow tropical flowers in a temperature 

 which does not suit their nature ; yet there are plenty of 

 handsome plants which need no heat, and can be grown to 

 perfection in a cool greenhouse, where they often do better 

 than when subjected to artificial warmth, all the heat that is 

 necessary to their welfare being easily supplied by placing a 

 well-trimmed lamp or small hot-water stove in the centre of 

 the floor during severe weather, or when the thermometer 

 might otherwise go below freezing-point. 



Of course, where hot-water pipes are laid on, there will 

 be less trouble to keep the greenhouse gay in the middle of 

 winter ; but the object of this chapter is to point out what 

 may be done without this help, and to suggest suitable plants 

 for a place from which frost only is excluded. Scarlet 

 geraniums, though usually seen in every greenhouse, are not 

 amongst these ; they look miserable in winter without fire 

 warmth, and are apt to become a prey to mildew if kept in 

 a moist, low temperature, so that they are really safer in the 

 sunny window of a sitting-room than in a cool greenhouse, 



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