194 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
summer one. Betuming to our instrument for a moment, the first 
necessity of tropical produce with its luxuriant energy, is a rich tropical 
Soil. But how many gardeners are warned off from touching this string, 
for fear the bit of rich old meadow should be spoiled ? The next demand 
of tropical vegetation is Water—soft, pure, and warm. This, too, is hedged 
round with difficulty; it is sometimes almost denied, or, if granted, is 
provided cold, impure, and hard ; and if furnished in sufficient quantity 
for the roots, how seldom are facile arrangements made for watering the 
air in a perfect and systematic manner ? Then there is the Air string. 
Well, it is often placed almost beyond reach or control, though it is the 
one chord above all others that needs most fingering, and the one that 
structural faults render most difficult to regulate. 
And, then, what shall we say about Heat ? Simply this—that because 
Jones built a lean-to to shelter bedding plants, Brown a Heath-house, and 
both run one four-inch pipe once round to exclude the frost, therefore 
Bobinson, who wants ripe Grapes and Peaches in April, and Boses at Christ¬ 
mas, places one also in his forcing-house. And so the gardener has to 
keep his hand on this string (or rather on the fire-shovel), the whole winter 
night, and strain it nigh to rupturing to get enough warmth, all because 
houses are heated by red tape routine or example, and not on definite scien¬ 
tific principles, or in accordance with common sense. 
Lastly, we come to Light—Nature’s great transforming power. Our 
climate has diluted it down with fog, soot, and aqueous vapour, until it is 
but a weak mixture at best of tropical brilliance ; and our builders of glass 
houses, not content with this reduction, have proceeded to shut out a further 
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