44 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



under more natural treatment, and are indispensable for 

 pictorial grouping. 



There is no question that in large conservatories detached 

 from the dwelling, permanent planting of certain evergreen 

 trees and shrubs is most advisable a method already sug- 

 gested on a small scale for one form of alpine house. These 

 may be associated with well-planned rockwork, or fern-edged 

 pool, so that the main features of the house may remain 

 unaltered, while flowering plants can be brought in from the 

 working-quarters according to season. The Himalayan House 

 at Kew is a noble example, on a grand scale, of a cold con- 

 servatory of this character. For such purposes, there is 

 abundance of material in the way of fine-leaved shrubs ot 

 larger or smaller growth to suit all positions. Planting for 

 continuance, however, must be done with the utmost care 

 and good taste, or it will be disappointing. But this kind of 

 planting is not always possible, nor even desirable, and many 

 people, whether they will or no, have to content themselves 

 with pot plants. In any case, a small space soon becomes 

 overcrowded and untidy, and no plant is always at its best 

 two good reasons why, under limited conditions, permanent 

 borders are better avoided, and every facility allowed for 

 frequent rearrangement. This is more particularly the case 

 when the ordinary small conservatory, which is seldom absent 

 from the rectory or country home, or even the suburban villa, 

 adjoins the sitting-rooms. To this end, and for other reasons 

 given in a former chapter, it is well also to dispense with fixed 

 stages, using only such simple removable contrivances for the 

 raising and arrangement of pots as may best lend themselves 

 to the natural grouping of the plants at disposal. In this 

 way the whole mise en scene of the conservatory can be altered 

 at will, but it will be understood that this is intended merely 

 as a practical suggestion to those who do not begrudge a little 

 time and trouble to give a fresh setting of ordered beauty to 



