722 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



plants which regulates their power of perspira- 

 tion ; and hence it is to be inferred that it is not 

 the greatest amount of light that can be obtained, 

 but the greatest quantity that they will bear 

 without injury, that is most favourable to 

 plants. 



Plants, therefore, should be regarded as plants 

 of sun and plants of shade ; hence the great 

 necessity of arranging them in plant-houses 

 according to the amount of light each specifi- 

 cally requires. This is a matter greatly neglected 

 in arranging plants in conservatories, on green- 

 house stages, &c, as well as in the construction 

 of houses for their accommodation. Heaths, 

 Pelargoniums, and all such plants as inhabit 

 naturally open and sun- exposed situations, 

 should be placed nearest to the glass, and in 

 the most open, airy, and sun-exposed part of 

 the house ; while such as become deciduous, or 

 others known to grow naturally in deep woods 

 or shady places, will be better placed farther 

 from the glass, and even under the shade of the 

 former. Others, like the camellia, although 

 growing naturally in exposed enough places, 

 will accommodate themselves in culture to a 

 much less amount of direct sunlight than many 

 others ; and hence many growers place them in 

 houses having a northerly exposure. The ma- 

 jority of ferns, and many orchids, are inhabit- 

 ants of deep shady ravines, under the shelter 

 and shade of rocks, and often growing on the 

 stems and branches of trees in jungles where 

 the rays of sun seldom enter : these should, in 

 culture, be somewhat similarly situated. On the 

 other hand, many plants — the orange, for ex- 

 ample — which luxuriate under the brightness 

 of an Italian sky while in a state of growth, will, 

 while in a dormant state during winter, accom- 

 modate themselves to a dark orangery or else- 

 where, if frost be excluded from them. Plants 

 indigenous to damp and shady places have their 

 leaves very thin, the epidermis pierced by nume- 

 rous invisible pores called stomata, through 

 which the plant breathes and perspires, and 

 through which it is enabled at all times to 

 procure abundance of liquid food. On the other 

 hand, plants growing on dry and exposed places 

 have their leaves very hard and thick, nature 

 thus adapting them to the circumstances under 

 which they grow. Attention to these points 

 will considerably enable the cultivator, even if 

 unacquainted with the circumstances otherwise, 

 to place his plants in those parts of his plant- 

 house most favourable for them. It is, how- 

 ever, only in structures of very large dimensions 

 that these conditions can be rightly fulfilled, as 

 well also as where the planting-out system can 

 be advantageously carried out. The uncovered 

 borders in conservatories, where the plants are 

 planted out, do not at all harmonise with the 

 plants themselves ; they should, therefore, be 

 covered in some way or other, and for this no- 

 thing is better than the prostrate species of Ly- 

 copodiums, which grow rapidly in the shade, 

 and at almost any distance from the glass, and 

 will give the whole a clean and healthy appear- 

 ance. Plants in tubs and large pots are im- 

 proved in appearance if covered in this way; and 

 those growing in smaller pots may be covered 



with various species of lichens, such as Ceno- 

 myce rangiferina, the reindeer moss, various 

 species of Ramalina, &c. These, without ex- 

 hausting the soil on which they are laid, will 

 last a long time, and remain perfectly fresh if 

 occasionally sprinkled with water. 



The larger plants should be grown in highly 

 ornamental vases or cases, in themselves as much 

 the work of art as the house they are to be 

 placed in ; and whatever material they may be 

 constructed of, they should be made so as to take 

 to pieces for the examination and adjustment of 

 the roots (vide fig. 260.) These may be grouped 

 or arranged according to faucy upon the floor of 

 the house, which should be paved with encaus- 

 tic tiles or polished stone ; or as exemplified in 

 the large conservatory recently erected by us 

 for the Misses Walker of Drumsheugh, where the 

 centre part of the floor is covered with white 

 sea-gravel over 2 feet of broken stones, to secure 

 ample drainage, and the surrounding passages are 

 of polished Caithness pavement. On the ground 

 the plants are arranged in groups, and elegant 

 vases of various sizes and heights are kept filled 

 with smaller plants in a flowering state, sup- 

 plied from the other greenhouses. This house 

 is glass on all sides to within 4 inches of the 

 floor-level. The cast-iron columns which sup- 

 port the roof, and the arms proceeding from 

 them, are made conductors for climbing plants, 

 which are trained in graceful festoons, suspended 

 from the upper parts. In a somewhat similar 

 structure, also erected from our designs for A. 

 K. Johnston, Esq., the pavement is of Minton's 

 encaustic tiles, the larger plants are grouped 

 along the centre, with an elevated group of exotic 

 ferns opposite the drawing-room window, which 

 opens into the house. A highly ornamental 

 cast-iron plant- table 2 feet in breadth is arranged 

 along the sides of this house for the reception of 

 smaller plants in ornamental pots, this table 

 being 2 feet above the floor, which is the height 

 of the stone ashlar parapet in which the bottom 

 glass ventilators are placed, and which forms 

 the base of the superstructure. In neither of 

 these cases are any of the plants planted out. 

 In another conservatory, at present in course of 

 erection, we have left the centre of the house 

 clear, with the exception of a small fountain in 

 the middle, the plants being arranged on both 

 sides, and the centre portion of the floor paved 

 with polished Arbroath pavement ; thus admit- 

 ting of a vista-view from the drawing-room win- 

 dow to the farther end of the conservatory, which 

 terminates in a semicircular group of small 

 plants, changed so as to be always in bloom, and 

 rising to the height of 4 feet, over which, and 

 through the glass end, is seen a romantic wooded 

 bank at a considerable distance from the house, 

 but yet, as seen from the drawing-room floor, 

 which is 3 feet above that of the conservatory, 

 appearing to form a continuation of the con- 

 servatory itself. Climbing plants are placed in 

 slate tubs, and carried over portions of the roof, 

 but in such a way as to create as little shade, 

 particularly during winter, as possible. The 

 iron columns and diagonal arms which support 

 the roof are made conductors to such plants, 

 and the T iron bars, which take a longitudinal 



