128 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



cover ftie surface. As the season advances, the spatter- 

 ing should be repeated to increase the shade, but at no 

 time for the plants last mentioned do we entirely cover 

 the glass. In England, especially for fern houses, 

 Brunswick green mixed with milk is used, to give a 

 green shade, which is thought to be best suited to these 

 plants. The blue glass for greenhouses which was so 

 highly lauded a few years ago, has not met with much 

 favor, but recent experiments in glazing with ground 

 glass have given such results as to warrant a more careful 

 investigation into the use of this material. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



THE LAW OF COLOR IN FLOWERS. 



I refer to this matter in the hope that it may be the 

 means of saving some of my readers, not only from being 

 duped and swindled, by a class of itinerant scamps that 

 annually reap a rich harvest in disposing of impossibili- 

 ties in flowers, but that I may assure them of the utter 

 improbability of their ever seeing such wonders as these 

 fellows offer, thereby saving them from parting with 

 money for worthless objects, and from the ridicule of 

 their friends who are already better advised. This sub- 

 ject cannot be too often brought before our amateur hor- 

 ticulturists. Warnings are given year after year in lead- 

 ing agricultural and other journals devoted to gardening, 

 yet a new crop of dupes is always coming up who readily 

 fall victims to the scoundrels who live upon their credu- 

 lity. Not a season passes but some of these swindling 

 dealers have the audacity to plant themselves right in 



