ON PLANTS IN DRAWING-ROOMS AND PLANT-CASES, &c. 
109 
ive been in use for some years on the Continent, but it is only recently that they 
ive been much employed in this country. To those who are fond of having a 
L plants constantly accessible to inspection, they will be an interesting and 
leful article, especially in towns. The plants will be preserved from any deposit 
I dust on their leaves or flowers, the whole may be easily shifted about if 
icessary, their strong exhalations may be confined, or partially released at 
easure, and the humidity proper to the plants will be more under com- 
and. 
From the simplicity of their construction, and the reduction in the price of 
I ass, they will doubtless, ere long, be obtained at a trifling cost. Many of those, 
)wever, which have come before us, are too plain to accord with a costly furnished 
,*awing-room : nevertheless, those exhibited last year at Chiswick, by Mr. Potts, 
' Birmingham, seem to have left nothing to wish for further in that respect ; — 
,iey are really elegant, and elaborately finished. 
In their formation small hooks or eyelets should be fastened in the top bars, so 
!iat orchidacese may be suspended. As it will also sometimes be needful to water 
!ie plants, a moveable bottom should be made for any excess to drain into, so that 
may be easily removed. 
! Some little taste will be requisite in the choice and arrangement of plants, so 
j5 to blend the more slender and graceful growing kinds with those of stouter and 
lore erect habit; and to show their flowers to advantage. To aid in this, and at 
le same time to contribute more variety, a few Lycopodiums and some of the 
|iore airy-looking ferns, may be mixed amongst those placed in the lower part. 
There is little doubt but a small collection of the dwarfer species of Cape 
leaths — a tribe which perhaps suffers as much as any other in a dry room — 
light be successfully grown in this way by those who cannot purchase the luxury 
f a greenhouse ; at least, when we find that without such aid they will retain a 
)lerable appearance, despite the heat of the room, we may reasonably expect that 
liey will exist and experience less injury, when they are no longer exposed to a 
fry air in conjunction with it. 
■ But there are many plants which flower abundantly, that it will not be 
'Practicable to remove from the houses, but which would nevertheless furnish a 
ood supply of cut flowers for the drawing-room ; and by proper care, and a few 
imple contrivances, these may be preserved perfect in beauty for a considerable 
ingth of time. The same atmospherical agencies which assist in lengthening the 
uration of blossoms on a growing plant, are essential to their preservation when 
.ut and placed in the drawing-room, and vice versa. Too much aridity soon 
destroys them, so does the opposite extreme. An agitated air, especially if a dry 
*ne, such as we commonly have in a sitting-room, extracts moisture from them 
:0O rapidly. 
i The remarks of Mrs. Loudon in her “ Gardening for Ladies,” recently 
fiublished, are much to the purpose, and worth knowing. This lady says, ‘‘ The 
