HOUSE PLANTS. 



81 



room in cold weather, care must be taken not to chill the plants 

 by leaving them in the cold current. 



The heat of ordinary dwelling-houses is quite enough for such 

 plants as we would recommend for general culture in rooms, only, 

 in very cold weather, the plants should be removed a little further 

 from the windows. The blinds and shutters are usually a suffi- 

 cient protection during the night ; and we may remark that plants 

 in rooms are more frequently killed by too much heat than by too 

 much cold. 



Spring and autumn are the times of the year at which window 

 plants require the greatest attention. It is usual to have the 

 plants outside the windows even during the night in the summer 

 season, and kept in the house both night and day in the winter 

 season. In the intermediate seasons of spring and autumn the 

 plants are frequently placed in their summer situation during the 

 day, and it is desirable that then they should be placed in their 

 winter situation during the night. Our climate is so variable at 

 those seasons, that we not only have summer during the day, and 

 winter during the night, but whole days of summer and winter 

 alternating with each other. Sometimes we have warmer days in 

 April than in May or June, and occasionally we have more severe 

 frosts in the beginning of September, than any which occur again 

 till November is nearly over. Now it is not the absolute heat or 

 cold, but the rapidity of the transition from one to the other 

 which is injurious to plants, and therefore it is absolutely necessary 

 for all such as w r ould have their house plants in the perfection oi 

 beauty, to attend to those circumstances. This is more especially 

 necessary in towns, where the people are much less interested in 

 the changes of the weather, and therefore much less observant of 

 them than they are in the country ; and we have no doubt that 

 more plants are destroyed from want of attention to those varia- 

 ble periods of the year than from any other cause. It is a safe 



