WINDOW GARDENING. 



425 



this instrument indicates 40°, in a sitting- 

 room 60°. When plants are kept in a dry 

 atmosphere they rapidly lose their water 

 of vegetation ; the sides of their pots are 

 robbed at the same time ; and it is im- 

 possible for plants to suck out of soil thus 

 partially dried the moisture demanded for 

 the sustenance of their exhausted foliage. 

 Such a state of things is inseparable from 

 a sitting-room. To render the latter con- 

 genial to plants, it would be uninhabitable 

 by ourselves. The extent to which plants 

 are injured in a common sitting-room is 

 strikingly illustrated by the condition of 

 cut flowers. Let two clusters of fresh- 

 gathered flowers be introduced into a 

 sitting-room : place the one in the mouth 

 of a narrow-necked jar of water, and 

 arrange the other upon such a shallow 

 pan of water as a deep dish will furnish. 

 It will be found that the latter will be 

 perfectly fresh days after the former are 

 faded. The reason is, that in the narrow- 

 necked jar the flowers have no access to 

 water except through the ends of their 

 shoots, and are surrounded with a very 

 dry air ; while, in the flat dish, they are 

 able to absorb abundant water, because a 

 large part of their surface is in contact 

 with it, and are, moreover, surrounded by 

 air incessantly moistened by the vapour 

 which continually rises from the dish." 



" Of this we may be sure, that darkness, 

 dust, heat, want of ventilation, and all 

 the other calamities to which plants in 

 sitting-rooms are subject, are as nothing 

 compared with the inevitable dryness of 

 the air — which, indeed, acts injuriously 

 not merely by exhausting plants of their 

 water of vegetation, but by lowering the 

 temperature of the pots in which they are 

 grown, in consequence of the evaporation 

 constantly taking place there. What 

 makes the evil greater is, that the plants 

 which are purchased for sitting-rooms are 

 invariably brought into high condition 

 by being grown in a damp atmosphere. 

 They are transferred from the hands of 

 skilful gardeners, armed with the most 

 perfectly constructed forcing-houses, into 

 the care of inexperienced amateurs, whose 

 means of maintaining a plant in health 

 are something considerably less than no- 

 thing." 



Of Wardian cases, figs. 585 and 586 are 

 elegant examples, calculated for a draw- 

 ing-room or saloon. In fig. 585 the top 



VOL. I. 



lifts off for ventilation, and is fitted 



closely into a brass groove, to which all 



the other bars 

 Fig. 585. are attached> 



Lgg&gjg The under 



part also fits 

 into a groove 

 in the raised 

 part of the 

 table, and has 

 entirely to be 

 lifted off when 

 the plants are 

 introduced or 

 arranged. The 

 whole is made 

 of brass high- 

 ly polished, and plate-glass bent to the 

 necessary curves in making. Fig. 586 

 lifts off in one piece, and is formed of 

 polished brass, as in the last example. 



Fig. 586. 



The Hopean apparatus is thus described 

 in " The Gardeners' Chronicle : " — " A flat 

 dish of porcelain had water poured into 

 it. In the water a vase of flowers was 

 set ; over the whole a bell-glass was 

 placed, with its rim in the water. This 

 was a Ward's case in principle, although 

 different in its construction. The air 

 that surrounded the flowers, being con- 

 fined beneath the bell-glass, was con- 

 stantly moist with the water that rose 

 into it in the form of vapour. As fast as 

 the water is condensed, it runs down the 

 sides of the bell-glass back into the dish • 

 and if means are taken to enclose the 

 water on the outside of the bell-glass," 

 (which can easily be done by having the 



3 H 



