INTRODUCTION. 



THE plants of which the present volume treats are 

 among the most beautiful in the floral kingdom. While 

 comparatively few are indigenous to Northern climes, 

 and many are natives of the torrid zone, most of 

 them may be grown with but a slight outlay ; and the 

 garden, frame, and greenhouse may be gay at every 

 season of the year with their gorgeous blossoms. 



Many of them are also admirably suited for window- 

 culture, and, though generally not ornamental in foli- 

 age, flower freely in the parlor, and stand well the 

 heat of furnaces, and the poisonous gas which impreg- 

 nates the air wherever gas is used for lighting. Dur- 

 ing their period of growth, which is the season at which 

 they are generally in the parlor, they will bear any 

 quantity of water; and therefore one of the great 

 mistakes in parlor-culture over-watering cannot 

 be committed. 



Most of those ordinarily grown in the parlor bloom 



