CHAPTER II 



Hard- Wooded Plants for the Greenhouse 



As a preface to the cultural portion of this little treatise 

 I should like to say that it will be impossible to deal in 

 a satisfactory way, in the space at my disposal, with all 

 or even with a large portion of true greenhouse plants, 

 as the result of so doing would be to compile something 

 scarcely better than a catalogue, and of little, if any, 

 value to the reader. I propose, therefore, to deal in 

 a general way with the management of the various 

 sections, each section as a unit, and to particularise 

 only in the case of plants which are fairly common in 

 cultivation and such as the great majority of plant 

 lovers would wish to grow. I regret that many charm- 

 ing species will thus be left unmentioned and must be 

 sought for in works of greater pretension. 



Hard-wooded plants, so called, are mostly of bush 

 shape and shrubby habit, though many climbers are 

 also included in this section. Familiar examples of 

 plants comprised under this heading are Azaleas, 

 Ericas (Heaths), Camellias, Cytisus (Genistas), Epacris, 

 Boronias and Daphnes. A few years ago one would 

 have included many more as familiar plants, but un- 

 fortunately the easy culture of the many soft-wooded 

 plants has led to the discarding of plants more beauti- 

 ful, when seen at their best, than many of the favourites 

 of to-day. 



Hard-wooded plants as just implied are as a class a 

 little difficult to grow well ; for, though some few of 



IO 



