Chap. XV.] WINTER GARDENS. 223 



beauty alone always associate well with substantial surroundings. 

 But the most important improvement to be effected is in the con- 

 tents of conservatories. They will never be truly enjoyable until 

 we display in them beauty of form. The aspect of most con- 

 servatories throughout the country is paltry in the extreme, except 

 perhaps when the flush of flower in early summer diverts at- 

 tention from the faults of a structure so little conservative of the 

 elegant forms which make the vegetable world so attractive. As 

 in many instances these structures stare point-blank at the 

 living-rooms of the house, it is clearly desirable to make them 

 presentable. Small subjects, from the Cineraria to the Azalea, may 

 please the enthusiastic amateur, but plants are capable of inter- 

 esting everybody and not the specialist only. So much however 

 cannot be hoped for the conservatory until a nobler type of 

 vegetation is not only represented but predominates. Flowers of 

 a similar type to the popular ones mentioned abound in our 

 gardens during summer ; there is therefore no necessity for 

 giving them prominence indoors : while on the other hand, those 

 tropical and semitropical aspects of vegetation which we can never 

 see in the open air in this country, may be obtained under glass 

 without difficulty. The temperature of conservatories generally is 

 sufiicient to develop as rich a type of vegetation as the hottest 

 stove, and without its heat and moisture. The grandest of all the 

 Banana tribe (Musa Ensete) thrives in a cool house, and so do the 

 Palmetto Palm of the Southern States of America, the Fan Palm 

 of Europe, Chamasrops excelsa, the graceful Seaforthia elegans, 

 and many other Palms. Nothing even among Palms can surpass 

 the effective grace of many Dracaenas, and they all grow well in the 

 cool temperature of the winter-garden. Numerous Ferns, from 

 those great Dicksonias which at the Antipodes rival or surpass 

 the Palms in grace, to the Wood war di as, which spread forth 

 such great fronds, grow under such conditions without trouble 

 compared to that required by commoner and smaller plants. It 

 is not only the Palms, Cycads, Tree-ferns, Dracaenas, and fine- 

 leaved plants generally which thrive throughout the year in a 

 cool temperature, that we may enjoy therein ; nearly all similar 

 plants that flourish in stoves would well bear introduction to the 

 cool conservatory or winter-garden after their spring and early 

 summer growth has been matured. Left there during the 



