150 HOME AND GARDEN 



with good taste. The usual thing is a crowded mass 

 of incongruous flowering plants ; just anything that 

 happens to be in bloom in the plant-houses; and 

 they are arranged so as to bring the bloom all to 

 one even surface, sloping up from front to back. It 

 looks as if the largest amount of material was used 

 in order to produce the least effect, for the quantity 

 of ill-assorted flowers brought together without design 

 is sure to prevent the full enjoyment of the beauty 

 of any. 



This is already generally understood in the case 

 of cut flowers for room decoration, where we no longer 

 see the old mixture of all sorts of flowers tightly 

 crammed together, but, on the contrary, simple 

 arrangements in good taste of fewer flowers ; or more 

 often of one sort only at a time, with a suitable 

 quantity of good foliage. One may often see this in 

 the drawing-room, while the old kind of muddle is 

 in full force in the adjoining conservatory ; whereas 

 if the better system were also practised here, the 

 beauty of the place would be increased tenfold, while 

 the number of flowering plants required would be 

 reduced to at most a quarter. 



The first thing in a well-arranged conservatory 

 is to have plenty of handsome foliage. Nothing can 

 surpass the utility of Aspidistra, and for massing, the 

 green is better than the variegated. Aralias of dif- 

 ferent sizes should be fairly plentiful, and Arums 

 whether in flower or not. Fvmkia grandijiora, potted 



