56 On the General Care of Plants 



CHAPTER IX, 



ON THE GENERAL CARE OF PLANTS AND THE WINDOW 

 GREENHOUSE. 



[]ET US consider now, dear readers, what we can 

 do to keep our window plants clean and 

 healthy. We all know that dirt and untidi- 

 ness with us is much against our bodily health and 

 often the origin of disease. It is the same with plants. 

 Unless we can keep our plants free from dirt and 

 insects, and allow them plenty of fresh air and sunshine 

 we cannot hope to be very successful in growing good 

 specimens. In the course of our daily duties, dust, less 

 or more, settles on our window plants, till by and by 

 they get quite grim and grey. You will understand 

 how hurtful this is when I tell you that the leaves of a 

 plant are its lungs. The leaves and stalks of a plant 

 are perforated with innumerable small pores, in much 

 the same way as the human skin. Through those 

 small pores they inhale the fresh air so necessary to 

 their existence and exhale the oxygen so necessary to 

 our life. And through them they absorb moisture 

 from the air around them, and give out the excess of 

 moisture to the air again. You would hardly believe 

 what a great amount of moisture a plant gives out in a 



