690 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



are immediately understood, so that by the simple act of calling a plant by its 

 proper name it is the talisman that opens the foreigner's heart, so that he feels 

 a pleasure in showing you all the beauties of his garden and greenhouses, and 

 you aie able to hold a floricultural conversation with him, and when you leave 

 his garden you part with a mutual esteem for each other. This is the true 

 language of flowers, the knowledge of which is a kind of freemasonry that 

 gives us the entre and a welcome to every garden and greenhouse in the 

 civilized world. 



The love of flowers is not confined to any one class of persons, for the hum- 

 ble as well as the rich unite in the admiration of their beauties, and we as 

 frequently see them adorning the rooms and windows of the most lowly dwel- 

 lings, as we do the mansions of the rich, receiving too from the poor inmates 

 of the former a care and attention that those in affluence would often do well 

 to imitate. 



Many persons will doubtless exclaim that they would gladly have flowers 

 in their rooms, could they only grow them so as to appear like these ; and 

 I must admit there are some difliculties to be met with here, on account of 

 the want of a suflBciency of light, and from too hot and dry an atmosphere 

 in most sitting-rooms at this season. But these difficulties would be more 

 imaginative than real if we adopted the same customs here as are so pre- 

 valent in Europe, for there almost every modern-built house has its con- 

 servatory or greenhouse attached to it, which not only makes a beautiful 

 addition to a dwelling, but is at the same time scarcely any extra expense 

 when building. And how much more desirable would such a custom be in 

 this country, where in all large cities we are crowded together in a 25 by 

 100 feet, with no better view from our windows than the 3'ards of our 

 neighbors, which are generally the deposit of everything that is unsightly. 

 How easily could all this be changed by building conservatories, which 

 would give a beautiful finish to our rooms, and at the same time aflbrd us 

 a most healthful and recreative amusement. But in order to grow flowers 

 in a conservatory it will be necessary to keep up a temperature within that 

 shall be congenial to the plant, otherwise they would freeze up at this sea 

 son ; fortunately, however, the means of doing this is now so simplified 

 that it will scarcely add any extra cost to the building, for it may be done 

 by either steam or hot water pipes, or even hot air ; in fact whatever pro- 

 cess is made use of for warming the apartments of the dwelling can be 

 brought into use for the conservatory, only if hot air is made use of, the 

 atmosphere is apt to become too dry for the proper and healthful culture of 

 plants ; this however is easily remedied by frequently throwing water on 

 the floor of the house, and at seasonable times syringing the leaves of the 

 plants, operations easily performed and would scarcely take a longer time 

 to do than it does me to describe. This creates within the house a gentle 

 moisture which plants love so much, and without which a high state of 

 cultivation can never be attained ; and for the matter of that, if we could 

 find the means of introducing a little more of this humidity in our dwel- 

 lings, it would be all the better for us, as we should enjoy much better 

 health than we can ever hope to do by breathing such a hot and dry atmos- 

 phere as we accustom ourselves to. Presuming, therefore, we have our 

 conservatory, the next question is how to fiil it with suital^e plants. To 



