PLANTS UNDER GLASS 



" Another Flora here of bolder hues, 

 And richer sweets." 



Conservatories merely devoted to plants in blossom 

 may be of any style, but if the plants have to grow and 

 flower in one house it is necessary for success to have 

 a low roofed structure, well exposed to light. Where 

 means are at hand to have several houses, the principal 

 and more ornate one could be used as a *' show " house, 

 while the others for growing plants in could be cheaply 

 constructed, low-roofed pits, covering at least twice the 

 extent of the display house. 



It is difficult to have plants at their best when ** every- 

 thing " has to be grown and planted in one house, and 

 that perhaps an ill-lighted, high-fronted structure. 

 Visitors to large nurseries are often struck with the 

 beauty that hothouse flowers display when grown en 

 masse, or on the ''one plant to one house" system. 

 Usually the houses in which they are found are erected 

 in the most economical way, yet the pureness of effect is 

 often felt to counterbalance the variety of the mixed 

 bench or stage. Where opportunity exists, such plants 

 as tree carnations, begonias, Chinese primulas, and 

 cyclamen, each deserve a house to themselves. Usually 

 if one house is devoted to one genus of plants, it is an 

 orchid house. A house devoted to a mixed collection 

 of these is a mistake, for they are much better suited if 

 distributed between the stove, intermediate, and cooler 

 house, as their kind and state of growth demands. 



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