THE PARLOR GARDENER. 145 



this temperature all the cultures that can be con- 

 ducted on a large scale in greenhouses, tempered 

 merely, or hot, are equally possible on a small 

 scale in the double window. 



Manner of decorating it. 

 Before filling it with flowers, you must suspend 

 there an elegant ear then- ware vase in which to put 

 a plant from the order bromeliacese * a Guz- 

 mannia, for instance, the leaves of which plant 

 resemble those of the ananas ; and in the centre 

 of this foliage there appears a flower of so bril- 

 liant a red that one cannot steadfastly gaze at it 

 without its fatiguing the sight. The size of this 

 vase must be proportioned to the width of the 

 window, and to the dimensions of the plants that 

 you propose to cultivate there. It is best that the 

 small pots which you have at the two sides be 

 supported on shelves formed of panes of glass, 

 because wooden stands would intercept the light 



* Order Bromeliacese (the pineapple family) consists of American 

 and chiefly tropical plants; with rigid and dry channelled leaves, 

 often with a scurfy surface; a mostly adnate perianth of three se- 

 pals and three petals, and six or more stamens; the seeds with mealy 

 albumen. Gray's Botanical Text Book. 



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