Flowers and Gardens 



thrown away to make room for new and 

 inferior ones, and sound pure colouring 

 rejected for streaky, splashy variety. 



Note 4 



If you have flowers growing in your 

 rooms in the early months of the year, 

 let them be as much as possible of exotic 

 and unfamiliar species, rather than such 

 as properly belong to the out-of-door 

 garden. Take, for instance, Mimosas, 

 Camellias, Hyacinths, in preference to 

 Snowdrops, Aconites, or Crocuses. The 

 reason for this is obvious. A house- 

 raised Snowdrop will seldom be as beau- 

 tiful as one grown in the open air, for 

 the cold is not uncongenial to these 

 plants, and the warmth of a room is far 

 more likely to weaken them than to 

 develop them to greater advantage. Be- 

 sides, the flower - pot necessarily gives 

 them a much more artificial look, so 

 that you are depriving yourself of half 

 the pleasure you would gain from the 

 out-of-door blossoms when they come, by 

 dulling your appetite with these miser- 

 able makeshifts, instead of waiting with 

 patience. The Christmas Rose is some 

 exception to what I have said. Its 

 122 



