124 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



CHAPTER XLL 



ARE PLANTS IN ROOMS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH? 



The question whether plants may be safely grown 

 in living rooms is now settled by scientific men, who 

 show that whatever deleterious gases may be given 

 out by plants at night they are so minute in quantity 

 that no injury is ever done by their presence in the 

 rooms and by being inhaled. Though we were glad 

 to see the question disposed of by such authority, ex- 

 perience had already shown that no bad effects ever 

 resulted from living in apartments where plants were 

 grown. Our greenhouses are one mass of foliage, and I 

 much doubt if any healthier class of men can be found 

 than those engaged in the care of plants. But timid per- 

 sons may say that the deleterious gases are given out only 

 at night, while our greenhouse operatives are only em- 

 ployed in daylight. This is only true in part. Our 

 watchmen and men engaged in attending to fires at 

 night make the warm greenhouses their sitting-room and 

 their sleeping-room, and I have yet to hear of the first 

 instance where the slightest injury resulted from this 

 practice. Many of our medical practitioners run in old 

 ruts. Some Solomon among them probably gave out this 

 dogma a century ago, it was made the convenient scape- 

 goat of some other cause of sickness, and the rank and 

 file have followed in his train. A belief in this error 

 often consigns to the cellar, or to the cold winds of win- 

 ter, the treasured floral pets of a household. 



