HOUSE PLANTS. 625 



room, a calla makes a nice window plant. It likes the warmest 

 and sunniest place, and plenty of warm water. The Chinese 

 primrose is a good plant for western exposure, and likes to be 

 kept cool. It can be had in many pretty shades. Daphne 

 odora is an old-fashioned plant, not often seen now, but a fine 

 one for a cool window. It has a glossy evergreen foliage, and 

 the sweet-scented, small, waxy, pink flowers will perfume the 

 whole room. Among the geraniums, which are especially 

 adapted to winter growing, there is a great variety to choose 

 from, A good selection is Queen of the Fairies, Asa Gray, Emile 

 de Geradin, and Jean Sis ley. These flowering varieties will do 

 as well at east or west windows as in a southern exposure. 



A curious and pretty plant is the small pink, Oxalis floribunda. 

 It will bloom ten months in the year. Just after sunset it will 

 seemingly go to sleep ; the leaves will close like an umbrella, 

 and the rosy flower will fold itself together for slumber. In the 

 morning, unless it is cloudy, the leaves and flowers will quietly 

 unfold and again enjoy daylight life. Sweet potato vines are 

 very pretty, and easily grown. Take rather small, long pota- 

 toes, that are perfect. Put them into tin cans that fruit comes 

 in, or into glass jars. Fill the cans with water, and let them 

 stand in a dark cellar until well rooted. Then remove to a 

 sunny room, and soon the pretty vines will grow rapidly. Date 

 stones, if planted in flower-pots, with rich, peaty soil, will grow 

 fast and make nice window plants for winter. Nasturtiums can 

 be grown in the house with good success, and will blossom well. 

 Phlox seed makes the finest, prettiest green for button-hole or 

 small bouquets. Sow it in sand and earth ; cover lightly and 

 water well. 



A few good plants and vines will brighten a house very much 

 during the long, cold winter, and with a little care will do well and 

 fully repay all trouble. Winter is not omnipotent in its war- 

 fare against things of living green ; and the lover of flowers, 

 who protects and preserves them, may by perseverance and cul- 

 ture succeed in transferring the flower garden in its beauty and 

 fragrance from without to within doors, holding a summer pic- 

 ture up into the very face of winter, as it creeps on with its 

 cold and chilling blasts, riding triumphantly over fields where 

 flowers held carnival all the summer long. Window gardening 



