56 WINTER GREEHERIES AT HOME. 



adjoining rooms. Especially take advantage of the occa- 

 sional moderation of winter weather, the thaws and warm 

 spells that frequently occur in our latitude. As a rule, 

 give your plants all the fresh air it is possible to give 

 them without violating other equally important rules. 



8. On very cold days, when your rooms can not be 

 freely ventilated, and there is little evaporation from the 

 pots, relieve the excessive dryness of the air by keeping 

 water in an open vessel where it may slowly evaporate, 

 or by watering the sand or moss around the pots. If you 

 can not have the atmosphere fully moist enough for your 

 plants, let it be at least healthfully so for yourselves. 



Now, if you were not interested, you might well be 

 wearied with this long enumeration of particulars ; and 

 yet I have said nothing on the specific treatment of plants 

 for winter blooming. If your windows are favorable for 

 that, and you are ready for the extra labor required, I 

 must take up the subject in another letter ; but you will 

 understand that all the treatment here prescribed may be 

 quite as necessary for winter bloomers as for other plants. 

 So I proceed with the particulars ; and not least in im- 

 portance is the matter of 



PROTECTION AND RESCUE FROM INSECTS, ETC. 



1. From insects. Keep a sharp look-out, and wage 

 upon them a war of absolute extermination. If they 

 once gain possession, great is their multitude, and great 

 their devastation. 



The tiny Red Spider is perhaps the worst enemy, be- 

 cause it is so nearly invisible, and so very persistent. It 

 delights in the dry heat of your rooms, and finds a home 

 on the leaves of almost any plant. Where it comes from, 

 nobody can tell, but its presence is soon announced by its 

 ravages. If you have never seen one, you may at first 

 require the aid of a magnifying glass. When minute 

 specks appear on the lower side of a leaf, put it under 



