PARLOR PLANTS. 73 



of nature, — often, indeed, in the latter case the only indication of 

 an appreciation of the beautiful. The window plants are cared 

 for and tended, they share with the children of the fainil}'' the 

 mother's solicitude, but often from their general appearance one 

 would judge that the care bestowed was ill requited. Yet the 

 fault is not in the plants ; they will well repay all care, but that 

 care must be directed by intelligence. 



A plant is an organized being ; it lives, breathes, eats, drinks, 

 and digests ; its term of life varies from a few summer days to 

 hundreds of 3'ears ; its wants are few, its food simple, and essen- 

 tially the same in all the myriads of species, from the pole to the 

 equator. 



An important point to bear in mind is that these wants, — these 

 needs of the plant, — few though they be, are imperative and un- 

 varying. A man may neglect to take food, or he may over feed, 

 and perchance escape ill effects, but the more delicate organism of 

 the plant refuses over indulgence, and is sure to suffer from privation. 



We are thus led to the statement that the reason of the gen- 

 eral ill success of parlor culture of flowers is too great or too lit- 

 tle care. In the first place, a plant is killed by kindness — by pro- 

 vision for fancied needs ; in the other by neglect to supply the 

 essentials of healthy life. 



A third cause also is a choice of unsuitable species of plants, 

 for the healthful existence of which we can not in parlor culture 

 supply the requisites. Let us now briefly consider the life of a 

 plant as shown by the wants which are essential to that life. 



We have said a plant lives and breathes, and a want of provis- 

 ion for this breathing is, we hold, one great cause of ill success 

 in parlor culture. A plant breathes through myriads of pores ex- 

 isting more or less numerously in the foliage according to the 

 species. If these pores become in any degree clogged by the fine 

 dust of the room, just so much is the health of the plant affected 

 by the stoppage of one of the vital functions. The dry air of 

 living rooms, often contaminated by furnace gas or unconsumed. 

 illuminating gas, is another source of ill health. 



Plants must breathe a moist pure atmosphere, — although what 

 is a pure atmosphere for a plant is not so for animal life, as plants 

 exhale oxygen and inhale carbonic acid, while exactly the converse 

 is true of animals, — and an atmosphere charged with coal gases 

 is sure to produce disease. 

 10 



