126 BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



account of the elegance of its leaves, the beauty 

 of its flower, and the exquisite odour it diffuses, 

 and to suspend it by a silken cord from the ceil- 

 ings of of their rooms, where from year to year 

 it continues to put forth new leaves, new blos- 

 soms, and new fragrance, excited alone to life 

 and action, by the stimulus of the surrounding 

 atmosphere. 



L. How I wish one such plant adorned our 

 rooms. Would it not be possible to get one 

 here, and by tempering the air in the house so 

 as to be equally warm with that of its native 

 home, make it flourish as well? 



E. It might answer in a hot-house, but would 

 not in common rooms, as the temperature could 

 not possibly be retained at the mean point. 

 Many of these plants are so fitted for their own 

 arid fields, that juicy as they are, it is impossi- 

 ble to make them grow in any but sear and 

 parched soils, and the moisture in our air would 

 most certainly destroy them. 



An instance is related of the Solandra, a Ja- 

 maica shrub, which was long propagated in 

 stoves by cuttings, and though freely watered, 

 would not show any sign of flowering, notwith- 

 standing the cuttings grew several feet in length 



