58 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



GREEN-HOUSES. 



97, My object is not to treat of any thing very 

 expensive or very curious. There are persons, 

 whose taste greatly differs from mine in regard to 

 shrubs and flowers; and I by no means pretend 

 to say that mine is the best. But, I can treat of 

 nothing that I do not understand, that is to say, 

 of nothing with regard to which I have not had 

 experience. My study, as to gardening, has 

 always been directed towards things that please 

 the senses: in vegetables, things that please the 

 palate, and that, to use the common saying, are 

 ,00^ to eat : in shrubs and flowers, things that 

 delight the sight or the smell. Mere botanical 

 curiosities, as they are called, I never took de- 

 light in. If the merit of a plant or a flower is 

 not to be discovered without close and somewhat 

 painful examination, it has always appeared to 

 me not worth the looking for. There is, in fact, 

 nothing more curious in one plant, or flower, than 

 in another. They are all equally curious ; they 

 are equally objects of wonder. There is more 

 of rareness, in England, in the Indian Corn than 

 in the Cowslip ; but here, the Cowslip would 

 have the merit of rareness. The ice -plant, the 

 egg plant, and many others, have oddity to re- 

 commend them ; but, after all, oddity is but a 

 poor recommendation. What are thousands of 

 these when compared to a single rose bush in 

 bloom ! 



98. I am rather anticipating here; but, I 

 wished to explain why I do not recommend any 

 very great pains in the affair of a green-house. 

 The plants to keep in such a place I will talk of 



