158 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



again on the stand, being careful to change them as far 

 as possible, so that each side of the plant may get its fair 

 share of light. If the same part is always placed to the 

 light, the plant will soon become drawn to one side. 



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, experience 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 persons may say that the deleteri- 

 ous gases are given out only at night, while our green- 

 house operatives are only employed 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 prac- 

 titioners run in old ruts. Some Solomon among them 

 probably gave out this dogma a century ago ; it was 

 made the convenient scapegoat 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 winter, the treasured floral pets of a 

 household. 



