54 WINTER GREENERIES AT HOME. 



quarters, by being exposed in the open window or out- 

 doors during the warm daytime, and brought in at night. 



2. All sudden and extreme changes of heat and light, 

 together with strong direct drafts of air, should be care- 

 fully avoided. Some plants will endure considerable va- 

 riations of temperature for a short time without injury, 

 but for all, without exception, something like the uni- 

 formity of summer is desirable. 



3. On the bright, sunshiny days of winter, the heat 

 of your rooms should be much higher say about 10 

 than when the weather is cloudy and dark. Plants seem 

 to require light and heat in very even proportions. In 

 summer, their natural time of growth, this requirement 

 is met, the heat being greatest when light is most abund- 

 ant ; but. in the artificial conditions of winter, it remains 

 for us to supply the part that is lacking, and to do so af- 

 ter the model of nature. 



As to the necessity of maintaining this equilibrium of 

 light and heat, there can be no doubt. It is said, on 

 good authority, that is, by persons who have made the 

 experiment, that a plant which keeps safely in a dark 

 cellar with the thermometer at 40, soon dies if the heat 

 is raised by a furnace without a corresponding increase 

 of light. Let the sunshine fall upon the same plant in a 

 room having- not more than 40, and the effect is similar. 

 In short, if we are to have any real summer at all in our 

 rooms, we must have all of its natural parts in natural 

 proportions. 



4. At night, also, the same natural order should be 

 observed ; that is to say, the heat and light should be 

 diminished together. If your rooms are occupied during 

 the long evenings, give the plants the coolest place, and 

 screen them as much as possible from whatever light you 

 use, especially from brilliant gas-light. When you finally 

 put them to rest in complete darkness, let it be, as I have 



