THE AC/THOR TO THE READER. 
vii 
window gardens, have the means of providing 
similar objects of enjoyment. Their wealth enables 
them to gratify their tastes ; and these are not 
fettered by any considerations of cost. But in our 
cities and towns, the immediate surroundings of 
the poor — whose existence is too commonly cheer- 
less and sad — are painfully dismal. Penury and 
suffering too add piquancy to the depression which 
is naturally caused by such dismal surroundings : 
and the efforts of those who have spent time and 
money in the endeavour to relieve the dull 
monotony of the lives of the poor, have been 
directed to a noble end. 
Whilst however the poor of our large towns feel 
more keenly than the well-to-do or the rich the 
necessity of having in or about their dwellings 
some such enlivening influence as would be pro- 
duced by the presence of plants or flowers, it is the 
rich who, from their more abundant means, have 
adopted “ window gardening ” to the greatest ex- 
tent. But amongst all classes of town dwellers the 
recent increase in the delightful practice is no doubt 
due to the same cause. Our big towns and cities 
