8 



CASSELL'S POPXJLAE GARDENING. 



struction, and needs no varnishing. 

 Msed in a miich too formal manner 

 genuity is capable of pro- 

 ducing verj' pretty effects 

 in this material. The 

 smaller the scale of the 

 box to be decorated, the 

 greater the need of taste 

 and ingenuity to avoid a 

 formality which should 

 be quite foreign to the 

 rustic style of decoration. 



Brackets will be Zk 

 found very useful for pot- 

 plants in a window. A 

 narrow strip of wood may 

 be hung from a screw in 



It is generally 

 but a little in- 



brackets of the pattern in Fig. 12 wiU be found very 

 useful on either side of a window ; but they must be 

 very strongly fastened to 

 the wall, as the weight of 

 four pots with earth and 

 plants in them is consi- 

 derable, and the lever- 

 age consequently great. 

 The advantage of these 

 swing - brackets is that 

 the plants need not be 

 taken ofE every night, 

 since they can be turned 

 back out of the way of 

 shutters and curtains. 



Pig. 11.— Box with Euatic Omaments. 



Shelves will often be 

 desirable where many 



Fig. 13.— Swinging Bracket. 



the shutter on either side 

 of the window, and if 

 three or four small shelves 

 be fixed to each strip one 

 over another, with suffi- 

 cient distance between 

 the shelves to allow of a 

 pot-plant standing on 

 each shelf, the plants will 

 be in a good position for 

 light and air all through 

 the day, but they must be 

 taken down at night if it 

 is wished to shut the shut- 

 ters. Smaller brackets 

 will sometimes be found 



more convenient, each to hold only one pot ; these 

 can be hung upon screws put into the upper bar of 

 the lower sash of a window. Strong swinging 



plants are wanted to go in 

 a window. If they are 

 fixed the shutters cannot 

 be used, and the curtains 

 when drawn wi 11 leave the 

 plants between them and 

 the window, which is not 

 where they ought to be 

 in very cold weather. It 

 is bettffl:, therefore, that 

 shelves should not be 

 fixed to any part of the 

 window-frame or sashes, 

 but that they should be 

 supported by a table, or 

 independent frame, which 

 can be moved into or out of the window at pleasure. 

 Kg. 13 illustrates this. If there are no backs to 

 the shelves, the plants will get all the more light. 



Fig. 13.— Shelves for Plants. 



