6 ORNAMENTAL EOLIAGE PLANTS. 



latter forms, however, claim the attention of amateurs 

 through being specially adapted to their wants : for 

 instance, many a blank wall, which is a constant eye- 

 sore, can be covered with such a structure, and thus 

 made to considerably increase the pleasures of a garden, 

 and that too with but a slight curtailment of the 

 ground, which in gardens of small extent is of con- 

 siderable importance. 



A word or two in reference to those little glass 

 structures which are so often attached to houses in 

 London and other large cities and towns, and styled 

 conservatories, may not be out of place in this chapter, 

 and firstly, we say, do not be over sanguine of success 

 with them, for they are usually miserable receptacles for 

 plants, erected to please the whim of the architect, who 

 generally has not the most remote idea of what is, 

 or is not, required or suitable for the future occupants, 

 and is not always even capable of making them orna- 

 mental. This state of things is not, however, confined 

 to small conservatories unfortunately, for we have seen 

 large glass houses attached to country mansions which 

 are nothing better than graves for the plants placed 

 in them, merely because the builder has chosen to 

 place them in some corner left blank by the style of 

 architecture, or they are constructed merely to give 

 a finish to his building, he all the while knowing 

 nothing, and caring as little, who may reap the reward 

 of his horticultural ignorance. Having, however one 

 of these small structures to deal with, say in a large 

 town, we must endeavour to turn it to the best pos- 

 sible account, and here one of the chief difficulties occur • 

 for while those in possession of a house of this de- 

 scription are generally amateurs who have less time to 



