32 



THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



different species, with more regard to their variety 

 and value to the botanist, than their beauty to the 

 general observer or amateur, and their fragrance and 

 easy culture. We have no hesitation in stating, that 

 a more beautiful and fragrant display may be made 

 from a judicious selection of heaths, geraniums, 

 myrtles, oranges, camellias, proteas, salvia, poly gala, 

 didsma, gnidia, acacia, melaleuca, nerium, fuchsia, 

 and perhaps one or tAVO others, than from all the rest 

 of the green-house plants known to botanists. The 

 heaths, the camellias, and above all the geraniums, 

 are an inexhaustible fund of beauty, and that for 

 every month in the year. The camellias are in per- 

 fection at Christmas, and last till the beginning of 

 February, when they are succeeded by the geraniums 

 and heaths, which keep flowering till the succeeding 

 November. 



We wish we could impress sufficiently on our 

 readers the importance of selecting a few choice sorts, 

 rather than aiming at a great number of species, or 

 what gardeners call a greater variety. The truth is, 

 that witldn the last fifty years the accession to our 

 stock of exotics has been so great, that gardeners 

 are quite bewildered among them, and the nursery- 

 men at present, in their recommendation of plants, 

 act as if every purchaser were a botanist. This is the 

 reason why we see so very few green-houses that 

 present a gay assemblage of luxuriant verdure and 

 blossoms : on the contrary, they are generally filled 

 with sickly, naked plants in peat soil, with hard 



