HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



409 



WHO 



brings them to the surface for germina- 

 tion. We can call to mind instances 

 where market gardens, cultivated in close 

 seed crops, were rendered almost useless 

 in the hands of slovenly owners. When 

 ground gets into this condition, the only 

 remedy is to grow crops such as Cabbage, 

 Potatoes, or Corn, which have vigor 

 enough to crowd down an excessive crop 

 of weeds. If land is filled with the seeds 

 of weeds, such crops as Onions, Carrots, 

 Parsnips, Strawberries, or Spinach, will 

 rarely pay for the labor of cleaning. 



Whorl Similar organs arranged in a circle 

 round an axis, as the leaves of some Lilies. 



Window Gardening. This is yearly becom- 

 ing more popular with us, and in all our 

 best appointed hotels window boxes or 

 stands of plants are seen, often arranged 

 with exquisite taste. The plants selected 

 are usually such as are attractive for their 

 beauty of foliage rather than flower, as it 

 is found that few plants can be found 

 whose flowers will long remain perfect 

 in the dry atmosphere and gas of such 

 rooms as our dining halls in hotels. The 

 plants best fitted for such purposes are 

 found to be Palms, Crotons, and Dra- 

 caenas. The Screw Pine, Climbing Fern, 

 etc., for winter, and Caladiums, Coleuses, 

 fancy-leaved Begonias, etc., for summer. 

 When flowering plants are used for tem- 

 porary decorations, Primulas, Azaleas, 

 Camellias, Mignonette, Sweet Alyssum, 

 Heliotrope, Carnations, Roses, or other 

 flowering plants having fragrance are se- 

 lected. The boxes used in window garden- 

 ing are made of a great variety of mate- 

 rials, such as wood, terra cotta, iron, rustic 

 wicker work, etc. But as the box is only 

 a medium to hold the plants, the latter 

 should be the object of attraction, and 

 not the box, so that any ordinary box 



WOR 



made of pine will answer a temporarv 

 purpose just as well as an expensive one, 

 as the sides soon become covered up 

 with the drooping or creeping plants. 



The window box should be made of a 

 length to suit the size of the window sill, 

 and from eight to twelve inches wide, 

 with a depth of from four to six inches. 

 On a visit to London a few years ago we 

 found that the rivalry of the occupants 

 of houses in window gardening even ex- 

 ceeded that in their door yards, the win- 

 dows of the houses on each side of the 

 street to four and five stories in height, 

 for miles in length, presenting a scene of 

 bright colors perfectly dazzling, markedly 

 among which were the blue of the Lo- 

 belia, the yellow of the golden Money- 

 wort, and the scarlet of the Tropseolum, 

 forming drooping curtains of these bril- 

 liant colors, often to a length sufficient 

 to reach the window below. The plants 

 used in arranging the window box 

 are so much a matter of taste that we 

 will not here make suggestions, other 

 than to say that the best effect is had by 

 planting the inner row of plants of a 

 bushy nature, say Geraniums or Mignon- 

 ette, while for the outer row to droop, 

 Lobelias, Nasturtiums, Golden Money- 

 wort, Petunias, etc. 



Wings. The lateral petals of a Pea flower; 

 the flat, membraneous appendages of 

 some seeds, as those of many Conifers 

 and the Maples. 



Working Hoots. This term, we believe, was 

 first used by the author in Practical 

 Floriculture, to distinguish the young 

 white roots emitted from the dry or old 

 roots, and is well applicable from the 

 fact that it is only when these young 

 white roots are emitted that a plant be- 

 gins to grow, the buds or shoots starting 



