CHAPTER XXX 



Popular interest in plants having ornamental 

 foliage has rapidly increased during the past few years. 

 Some of them will be found in almost all collections, 

 and each season sees an addition made to the list, in 

 most homes, because the owners have discovered that 

 this class of plants generally give better satisfaction 

 than flowering plants under the conditions which pre- 

 vail in most dwellings. They adapt themselves much 

 more readily to sudden changes .if temperature, light, 

 and other atmospheric conditions which exist in the 

 ordinary living room. A fine specimen of any plant 

 with pleasing foliage is always attractive, while ordi- 

 nary flowering plants are not particularly so unless 

 in bloom. It has taken some time to educate people 

 to an appreciation of the great merits of decorative 

 plants, but of late they have become fully alive to 

 the fact that they are really the most satisfactory of 

 all plants, if a proper selection is made. 



No well-appointed room is complete without one 

 or more handsome foliage plants. With proper care 

 in selection, varieties can be found which are fully 

 able to adapt themselves to any condition. The Palm 

 is probably the most pojuilar decorative plant at pres- 

 ent. It is a very easy plant to manage, if its wants 

 are understood, but the frequency of requests for 

 information regarding its cultivation shows that there 

 is need of more general knowledge concerning the 

 plant and its requirements, and this need T shall try 

 to meet in what I have to say in the following 

 paragraphs. 



