248 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



same taste for window-gardening is displayed, more or 

 less, in all the English towns and villages, and even the 

 humblest thatched cottage of the peasant by the wayside 

 is given a look of quiet happiness by the bovver of flowers 

 in the window. How different the look of those humble 

 homes, where the occupant is receiving barely four dollars 

 per week, from the squalid shanties in the suburbs of our 

 great cities in America, where the " naturalized " 

 American citizen is often earning three times that 

 amount ! Grand effects may be produced in our climate 

 by the use of climbing vines as window plants, which can 

 be trained outside in summer on wire or strings. Nota- 

 ble among these are : Cobma, scandens, Ipomcea noctilu- 

 ca, or Moon-flower, Maurandias, purple and white, and 

 Lophospermums ; for inside, the Climbing Fern, Smilax, 

 or Climbing Asparagus. 



Here let me deviate from my text, but to a kindred 

 subject, and tell how the English cottager works his 

 garden in some of the old towns, such as Colchester. 

 To each cottage, renting for about fifty dollars per year, 

 is attached a garden of something more than an eighth 

 part of an acre in extent. In this little spot the tenant 

 contrives to grow four to six kinds of vegetables, such as 

 potatoes, cabbages, peas, turnips, etc., and of fruits, 

 gooseberries, currants, raspberries, and strawberries. 

 Every foot is made to produce something, and rarely a 

 weed was seen in some scores that we saw ranged side by 

 side. The heavy work is done by the man of the house, 

 " before or after hours," in his own time. In the weed- 

 ing and hoeing he is assisted by wife or children. There 

 is great rivalry among the different owners of these 

 cottage gardens, and in many places liberal prizes are 

 given b^y the horticultural societies to those that are 

 best cultivated. 



Prizes are also offered for the best window-grown 

 plants, and in Hull and some other towns, plants are 



