6 



GREEXHOUSES. 



plants, than to have larger houses with a view to growing them indis- 

 criminately. 



Such lofty and extensive ranges of plant structures as those at Sion, 

 Alton Towers, and other places, may he all \ery well in their respective 

 places, and may not be beyond the proper scale of grandeur necessary to 

 correspond with the princely objects surrounding them ; but so far as 

 plant culture alone is concerned, no arrangement can be more unsuccessful, 

 as may be seen in contrasting the state of plants in such houses with 

 those grown in stmctures of humbler dimensions. If it were possible, 

 indeed, to cover a sufficient space of ground with a glass roof, under which 

 the trees of Australia, for instance, could be seen in the full developement 

 of their growth, there might be some advantage, but to attempt to exhibit 

 any thing hke the natural character of such trees in their full proportions, 

 under such buildings as has hitherto been aimed at, is a very vain attempt. 

 From the nature of the atmosphere in such houses, trees and plants will 

 extend themselves till they reach the top, but during the struggle the 

 more dehcate, and often the more valuable ones, are overcome by their 

 more robust neighbours, while even these present mere skeletons, furnished 

 vnth a few branches and leaves at the top, while the naked stems, scarcely 

 able to support themselves, are without a bud, branch, or leaf. Not so 

 the same genera of plants cultivated in moderately sized houses : under 

 such management they branch out from the surface of the pot upwards, 

 covered, in their seasons, with a profusion of blossoms, dehghting the eye 

 with the brilliancy of theii' colours, and the sense of smeUing with the 

 fragi'ance of their perfume. 



As to cultivating a general collection of plants in the same house, 

 although very generally attempted, it is by no means to be recommended. 

 The treatment by different families of plants, varies so much at certain 

 seasons, that the best cultivators have found, from that sure test, ex- 

 perience, that it is better to appropriate separate houses to such families as 

 nearly agree in cultiu-e and habit. 



Such is our view of the subject : plants to be well cultivated ought to 

 be divided into groups, in a somewhat similar manner to that sketched 

 out in the following pages. The cultivator who shall du*ect his attention 

 to one, two, or more of these dirisions, according to his taste and chcum- 

 stances, ^ill be much more amply repaid, than if he were to congregate 

 plants of discordant habits, and of different climates, into one habitation, 

 merely for what he may choose to call variety, or a rich collection of species. 

 The mania for accumulating species, instead of forming judicious selections 

 of good flowering plants, has produced veiy baneful effects in the EngUsh 



