WINDOW GARDENING. 



421 



the nature of plants are unable to over- 

 come. Amongst these difficulties, the 

 principal is the adjustment of the amount 

 of moisture to which a plant is exposed 

 in one of these cases, to the surrounding 

 heat, and to its own proper nature. 

 Another is the prevention of dew upon 

 the inside of the glass, by which the inte- 

 rior is often entirely hidden. These are 

 practical difficulties that must exercise 

 the ingenuity of cultivators. Upon the 

 former we can give no information, be- 

 cause each species requires a special con- 

 sideration. As to the deposit of the dew 

 upon the glasses, we may observe, that 

 as this is owing to the inside of the case 

 being colder than the air that surrounds 

 it, the only course to take is, either to 

 warm the internal air by some means, or 

 to open a door in the case for a short time ; 

 and as the latter is the most easy, and is 

 quite efficient, it will be the more gene- 

 rally adopted." 



Plants have been kept in Wardian 

 cases for upwards of twelve months in 

 good health and condition without re- 

 newal, and all this while but with one 

 supply of water. "This to some may 

 appear strange, but the principles of 

 evaporation and condensation sufficiently 

 explain it. The heat of the sun, or even 

 of the room in which the case stands, 

 naturally produces evaporation through 

 the daytime, and during night the process 

 of condensation takes place, and the 

 moisture which has been evaporated is 

 returned to the soil. These two prin- 

 ciples are in active operation alternately 

 day and night. It ought to be noticed, 

 however, that owing to the growth of the 

 plants, as well as other contingent causes, 

 such as apertures in the framework, the 

 quantity of moisture in time becomes 

 lessened ; and when this is the case, a 

 fresh supply will be necessary. As mo- 

 notony and continuity cease in time to 

 afford gratification, and as it may happen, 

 no doubt, that some of the plants will 

 grow beyond their bounds, fresh removals 

 and replacements will be found neces- 

 sary." — Gard. Jour. Add to this, much of 

 the pleasure to be derived from plants 

 growing under one's care and in one's 

 drawing-room, would be lost, were we 

 not allowed to arrange and re-arrange 

 them according to taste and fancy. 



M. Victor Paquet, in "Almanach Hor- 



ticole," speaking of window gardening as 

 followed in Belgium, says, " The balconies 

 are turned into greenhouses, and you may 

 find, on the fifth or sixth floor, a minia- 

 ture stove, gay with the brightest flowers 

 and the greenest foliage. In Paris there 

 are many such contrivances, especially 

 two on the fourth floor of a house in the 

 Boulevard de la Madeleine. Here are to 

 be found the rarest plants. Camellias 

 grow in the open ground ; passifloras cling 

 to the columns ; the creeping fig forms a 

 carpet upon the walls," (Ficus stipulacea, 

 we presume,) " and water plants start up 

 from tiny basins, curiously contrived in 

 the solid brickwork. By turning a screw 

 a stream of limpid water flows down a rock, 

 from whose crevices start up ferns and 

 Lycopodiums, and such things. And what 

 is it that adjoins this little paradise but a 

 bedroom ! " 



Enjoyable as such a window garden 

 must be to the lover of flowers, it is, per- 

 haps, upon a scale beyond the reach of 

 more humble admirers of Flora. The 

 Belgian window-garden, figured and de- 

 scribed by M. Paquet, is within the reach 

 of all, and will be understood by a glance 

 at the annexed elevation, fig. 576, and 

 section, fig. 577. In the latter it will be 



Fig. 576. Fig. 577. 



seen that the sill of the window is ex- 

 tended in breadth beyond the face of the 

 wall of the house by brackets a, generally 

 highly carved, as in the sketch ; two or 



