THE PLANT DECORATION OE APARTMENTS. 263 



since the 'Lady Ferns' and 'Venus's Hair' appeared; and 

 that you could not help yourself looking now and then at 

 the said ' Venus's Hair/ and agreeing that nature's real 

 beauties were somewhat superior to the ghastly woollen 

 caricatures which they hare superseded." Perns, to be sure, 

 have been a great help and a great attraction ; but they 

 are by no means so readily grown in rooms as some things 

 to be presently mentioned; nor are they supreme as regards 

 verdure and elegance. By a combination of all the 

 plants suitable for 



this purpose, we Fig. 101. 



may not only find 

 very agreeable in- 

 door employment, 

 but create the 

 highest kind of or- 

 nament and inte- 

 rest in the house 

 at all seasons. 



Not only are we 

 deficient as regards 

 the better kinds of 

 plant ornament in 

 houses, but also 

 in large gardens — 

 with far greater 

 means of readily 

 developing it than 

 occur on the Con- 

 tinent. Merely displaying a few popular or showy sub- 

 jects is not plant decoration in any high sense ! Rooms 

 are often overcrowded with ornaments, many of them 

 exact representations of natural objects ; but in the case of 

 the plants we may, without inconvenience, enjoy and pre- 

 serve the living natural objects themselves. Those we em- 

 ploy for this purpose now are mostly of a fleeting character, 

 and such as cannot be preserved in health for any length of 

 time in living rooms. But if in addition to the best of 

 these we select handsome-leaved plants of a leathery tex- 



Maranta fasciata. 



