148 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



rous openings into the air through the laps of the 

 glass and the joints of the sashes ; but these were 

 points of no importance under the mode of manage- 

 ment adopted. 



The impossibility of preserving any plants except 

 succulents, in a healthy state, for any long period, in 

 a sitting-room, is evidently owing to the impracticabi- 

 lity of maintaining the atmosphere of such a situation 

 in a state of sufficient dampness.* 



An excess of dampness is indispensable to plants, 

 in a state of rapid growth, partly because it prevents 

 the action of perspiration becoming too violent, and 

 partly because under such circumstances a considera- 

 ble quantity of aqueous food is absorbed from the 

 atmosphere, in addition to that obtained by the 

 roots. 



But it is essential to observe that, when not in 

 a state of rapid growth, a large amount of moisture in 

 the air will be prejudicial rather than advantageous to 



* And the success of those who do, in spite of the adverse circum- 

 stances, succeed in raising fine plants in sitting-rooms, will usually 

 be found to be owing to their taking great pains to keep the leaveB 

 in a healthy condition by frequently syringing or washing them 

 with a sponge. One of the most successful parlor-plant amateurs 

 we ever knew, gave her plants " a bath," as she called it, twice a 

 week. Removing them into a large closet and laying them on their 

 sides in a flat tub, she cleaned every pore of the upper and under 

 sides of the leaves by a very severe syringing with warm water. 

 The plants gained health, not only by the cleansing and the absorp- 

 tion of moisture, but-by the motion of the stems and branches caused 

 by dashing water on them from the syringe, which in a good degree 

 compensated for the absence of wind-motion, so beneficial to the 

 growth of all trees and plants in the open air. A J. D. 



