Enclosed Windoiv Gardens. 
Ill 
lead pipe of small bore will convey the water to the fountain, and there a 
little skilful engineering will accomplish the rest. As the splashing of water 
in such a place might be objectionable, the fountain may be enclosed in a 
glass shade, and its appearance rendered none the less elegant thereby. 
Where there is no opportunity of fixing cases inside or out for growing 
plants in windows, the following plan, enabling a pretty effect to be produced 
inside may be adopted. Have a stout oak box, coated with pitch inside, 
made to fit the window; then four zinc shells to fit inside the box, The shells 
are to be filled with plants and kept in the greenhouse until required, bringing 
them in one at a time, and removing them when the plants begin to look 
shabby. By this means a constant succession of plants in good health can 
be maintained. The example figured shows a wire arch covered with the 
German Ivy ( Senecio mikanioides ), and caladiums, arum lilies, dracaenas, 
coleus, &c., grouped underneath, and finished off with an edging of moss 
(,Selaginella Kraussiana). The box may be filled with cocoanut-fibre refuse 
and the pots plunged in this, or with soil and the plants planted in it. 
Another development of the enclosed window garden is that particular form 
which, some years ago, we designated the hortas fenestralis , the window 
garden par excellence, and the multum in parvo of its kind. It is an elegance 
peculiarly adapted for the window that commands an unpleasant look-out, or 
where inquisitive eyes impose a limit on privacy, or perhaps tongues that defy 
propriety make unseemly noises without. It is powerful to exclude noise, dust, 
and excess of light; and may be made a gratification to passers-by, as well 
as to those within the house, as may be desired. 
An essential feature of the hortus fenestralis is, that it is in the fashion of 
a closed case fitted to the window, extending to half its height or more; it 
may indeed be of the same height as the window, and projecting outwards to 
the full extent of the sill or beyond it. If the reader will turn to any one 
of the windows of the apartments occupied, during the perusal of this, it will 
be seen that there is a space both within and without the glass sashes that 
may be appropriated for the cultivation of plants, as the annexed diagram will 
illustrate. Let A represent the inner sill, B the existing glass sashes, and C 
® the outer sill. The whole width of A and C may be appro- 
| priated to plants by providing a glass case to fit it: and as 
A | c most windows consist of two sashes, the lower sash may be 
B removed and its place be taken by the case ; or if that is 
objectionable, the space C may be appropriated to the case, which may be 
