140 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



and sit down to the evening meal. Pretty, graceful blossoms nod 

 cheerfully at us across the table. Delicate scents please and soothe 

 our senses. And no longer are our drawing-room vases empty, 

 or decorated with nothing better than a few grasses and berries. 

 They are full of exquisite, perfumed flowers. 



Presently another consideration comes. Are there not many 

 plants which we love that we have had to do without, because 

 they are not hardy Cinerarias, for example, and Cyclamens, and 

 scented Freesias, and Orchids, and Gloxinias, and florists' Fuchsias, 

 and Musk, and Gardenia, and Stephanotis, and Eucharis? These 

 and many other beautiful plants we have foregone, because they 

 do not thrive out of doors. Given glass, we can grow them all. 



Perhaps there is a conservatory attached to the house one of 

 those awkward, lofty, stageless, draughty, damp places which are so 

 tempting to the inexperienced gardener, but which prove to be so 

 unsatisfactory as practical plant-houses. The reader knows that 

 conservatory. If he has not one attached to his own house, he 

 has seen one in association with a house that he visits. There are 

 many things that it does. It sometimes plays a very useful part 

 as an extra room in summer, and a general store in winter ; but 

 it is often a general muddle. There is one thing which it never 

 does, and that is to grow decent plants. It cannot do so because 

 it is not built that way. Suppose, however, that the owner takes 

 a new view of it? Then he does not attempt to raise plants in 

 a house which is totally unsuited for the purpose; but he puts 

 up another house to produce the material in, and when it is in 

 perfection he displays it in tasteful ways in his hitherto unsatis- 

 factory house. As a show-house the conservatory proves to be 

 a great success, and it is particularly pleasing and delightful in 

 late winter and early spring a period during which, in its old 

 days, it was a hopeless and melancholy jumble. 



In almost every household there is a member not quite so 

 vigorous as the rest. Perhaps it is a lame or delicate girl, who is 



