108 
ON PLANTS IN DRAWING-ROOMS AND PLANT-CASES, 
The removal of plants during the period of blooming, and especially many ' 
the grotesque yet beautiful tribe of orchidacese, to the drawing-room, has no 
become almost as fashionable as collecting a brilliant display of blossom in a greei 
house. Proprietors are thus enabled at any time to enjoy their favourites leisure; 
and pleasantly, unattended by the inconveniences arising from bad weather, ar 
the detached and often distant situation of the plant-houses ; and also from til 
sometimes confined atmosphere, excessive heat, and insalubrious humidh| 
maintained in them. j 
There is, however, some unpleasantness connected with it which it would 1 
desirable to remove. That volatile matter yielded by many flowering plants, ai| 
particularly orchidacem, which constitutes an agreeable fragance during the day, . 
poured out from some species in such excessive streams at night, and wh(| 
confined in a close room proves not only disagreeable and inconvenient, but ac|^ 
powerfully and banefully upon persons of delicate constitution. In fact it » 
recorded on the authority of De Candolle, that even the little violet, so universal 
esteemed for its grateful odour, carries a noxious influence with it, which is If 
overpowering that he has known ladies to faint from the mere circumstance 
carrying too many about their persons. The aroma emitted from some plants h 
been known to produce death ; and there are few persons but can testify to tf 
oppression or languor experienced under the influence of odours that are agreeabi 
when not too highly concentrated. With these facts, then, before us, furthi 
argument scarcely need be adduced to convince of the expediency of some mol 
of mitigating or removing the baneful power ; especially if it can be done withol 
affecting, but only modifying, the continuance of the present practice. 
But even were other arguments needing, they are not wanting. There isf 
disproportion between the atmosphere of the plant-houses and that of an ordinal! 
sitting-room, which acts as injuriously on the constitution of the plant, as tl 
plant acts on the nerves of a delicate person. Supposing a plant at the time of i 
introduction to be in a free-growing state, the transition from the warm moi 
atmosphere of a stove to the comparatively dry air of a sitting-room, will be a] 
to impose a check that may require some time to recover from. But we will n 
insist much upon this, as we are persuaded that much of it may be obviated hy,^ 
proper selection of plants, and by a preparatory treatment. 
With a view to the better preservation of plants in a sitting-room, sever ' 
individuals have modified the construction of the Wardian cases into portabj 
miniature greenhouses or plant cases, adapted for rooms. The original Wardi| 
case is hermetically closed ; those we allude to are provided with the means I 
ventilation on the top, and with small side-doors for the same purpose, and 
allow the plants to be examined or removed at any time. Similar contrivanc 
