ROOM AND WINDOW PLANTS. 



267 



little or nothing green to see, then window plants are desirable. If privacy is an object 

 in view, then a "Wardian case, filled principally with ferns or a row of plants, is needed. 

 Charming outlooks can be produced by providing a glazed convenience for plants outside 

 a, window on the back portion of a house, of which the normal prospect includes dingy 

 walls and gaunt chimneys. The illustration (Fig. 155) represents the view from a 

 back window in the London house of Mr. Yates Thompson when he was proprietor of 

 the Pall Mall Gazette. Au irregular frame of rustic cork added to the effect of the 

 floral picture, and the window could be conveniently opened for arranging and attending 

 to the plants. 



In the absence of such arrangements, one really good window plant, such as a 

 well-grown Adiantum cuneatum, A. pedatum, Asplenium flaccidum, Pteris tremula, 

 P. serrulata cristata, Kentia Fosteriana, Latania borbonica, Ficus elastica, Aralia Sie- 

 boldi, and, if gas has to be reckoned with, Aspidistra lurida and its variegated form, are 

 to be preferred to several one-sided plants in variety. A number of greenhouse plants, 

 we gladly admit, can be successfully cultivated in windows, and much pleasure is 

 derived by innumerable amateurs from such ornaments of their houses. 



Dwelling-houses are regarded by many persons as most destructive to plant life, but 

 they need not necessarily be so. Why so many plants live in rooms only a compara- 

 tively short period of time, is because they are wrongly treated, gas also proving very 

 injurious. As previously observed, they must not be subjected to rushes of cold air, 

 especially if altogether unprepared for such treatment. Those grown in a warm house 

 of any kind ought first to be hardened somewhat, then low temperatures and cutting 

 winds will not then affect them so badly. There is really no necessity for raising the 

 lower half or sashes of windows. It is through the upper openings that vitiated air 

 and dust most readily escape, and the purifying can be done without unduly lowering 

 the temperature of the rooms, or injuring delicate plants. 



Large numbers of plants are practically ruined through either watering them reck- 

 lessly or not at all. In rooms it is possible they may not need so much water as they 

 did in lighter, heated houses. Stove plants ought particularly to be examined most 

 carefully before watering, as supplying them with as much water as they received 

 previous to being brought into the rooms may prove fatal. No plant should be watered 

 till the soil is becoming dry, when enough ought to be applied to thoroughly re-moisten 

 it. Nor ought water that has drained out of pots to remain in the saucers or troughs 

 holding them, as this passes upwards by capillary attraction, and the soil soon becomes 



m m 2 



