152 



HOME AND GARDEN 



into the conservatory to bite and kick each other in 

 the usual huddled crowd. 



I do not venture to say that a better use of 

 indoor plants is never made ; indeed I know that 

 in the case of places where the owners are people 

 of taste a much better state of things exists. But 

 these bright exceptions are lamentably rare, and I 

 do not think I am exaggerating when I estimate that 

 out of every hundred collections of stove and green- 

 house plants there are scarcely three in which any 

 serious attempt is made to use them for the enjoy- 

 ment of well- arranged beauty. And it is not fair to 

 expect the ordinary gardener to be able to do it. 

 The guiding motives of such arrangements (unless he 

 be a man of exceptional gifts) are beyond his reach 

 of apprehension, and he cannot be expected to have 

 received the refined education of the highest order, 

 which can alone form the foundation on which such 

 motives are built. 



I take pleasure in picturing to myself various 

 forms of pleasant winter gardens ; of places where 

 there shall be no discordant note of obtrusive staging 

 or gaudy tile or blue-white paint, or any ostenta- 

 tious or unseemly elaboration ; but where beautiful 

 flowers and foliage should hold their own in undisputed 

 possession. What groupings I would have of tropical 

 Ferns and Orchids, overshadowed by great groups of 

 Bananas, and how much better to give the needed 

 shade by means of Bananas or tall Tree Ferns than 



