ITS ADVANTAGES 7 



which were " by squares of tropic summer shut and warmed 

 in crystal cases," are apt to meet the same fate, or 



" These, though fed with careful dirt, 



Are neither green nor sappy ; 

 Half-conscious of the garden squirt, 

 The spindlings look unhappy." 



Unhappily, too, other things grow as fast as the spindlings. 

 Aphis is but a feeble foe, comparatively speaking, and easily 

 to be overcome ; but the horror of a visitation of mealy bug 

 the plague of the hothouse is not to be described, and scale 

 is nearly as noxious. In the unheated greenhouse the annoy- 

 ance of such direful insect pests is greatly lessened, and the 

 careful gardener need have none of them. On the score, then, 

 of simplicity of management, I rest my third plea. 



To sum up, therefore : For health of enjoyment, for mini- 

 mum of expense, and for easy handling, the unheated green- 

 house presents certain advantages not heedlessly to be over- 

 looked by the lover of plants who makes a hobby of cultivating 

 them for his own pleasure. Add to these somewhat prosaic 

 advantages the great charm of seeking out and making friends 

 with rare and unusual plants, of persuading them to grow and 

 do well under unwonted conditions, of bringing fragments from 

 far distant lands to remind us of happy hours spent under 

 sunnier skies, or of raising seedlings sent from furthest corners 

 of the Empire to show the diverse flora of the environment of 

 new homes. In such manifold ways the cold greenhouse at all 

 times of the year never fails the intelligent gardener. It is 

 subject to no great extremes of temperature, it may be large or 

 small as means or strength will permit, it may be planted out 

 to form a garden under glass, or it may be used exclusively for 

 pot plants. It steps in midway between garden and hothouse, 

 sharing and prolonging the pleasures of the one and giving a 

 safe haven to the refugees of the other. 



