22 WINDOW GARDENING. 
that their plants will become chilled, that they turn all the heat of their fur- 
naces upon them at night, and the gas-light joined with it, increases the irrita- 
tion ; so that the plants are kept in an unnatural state when they ought to be 
at rest, for plants need sleep and do sleep ; so the efli'ect of unreasonable light 
and heat is very exhausting. Drop the curtains over the plants to exclude them 
from the light of the room, or pin newspapers around them during the evening. 
Nothing is so handy and useful in protecting them from frost as newspapers. 
They will frequently preserve a plant when the mercury falls nearly to free 
zing point. Neither should plants be chilled. Avoid the extreme of rendering 
them too cool, but maintain a good medium temperature. Rooms whose ther 
mometer reaches 80 to 85° during the day, and then falls to 30 or 35° at night, 
will never keep plants in good health. 
Size of Windows. 
The larger the better if you want to grow many plants. Bow windows are 
always liked, and generally considered the best, as they afford exposure to the 
sun at all hours of the day, if they face the south. The larger the panes, also 
the better. The best style of window, not bow, is to have a good sill, say not 
^ess than six inches wide on each side of the sash ; if eight or ten inches, so much 
the better ; this affords room for a fine sill or rustic window box, which may be 
changed at intervals from the inner sill to the outer one jutting beyond the 
edge of the sash. Boxes for this style of window should be six inches deep. 
Sometimes double boxes may be desired, one on each side of the window, in 
which case the outer box should contain low growing evergreens, and the 
interior one bulbs. It is usual, also, to cover the sills with paper before setting 
the boxes down. Still this is not necessary where there is no danger from leak- 
ing. If the window is low, and near the ground, climbing vines may be trained 
upward over the window ; this is more fully described under head of balcony 
gardening. 
Our windows differ so much in size that every one must shape their prepara- 
tions entirely according to their conveniences ; but if a sill, either permanent 
or temporary, can be constructed on the outside of the window, it will be found of 
convenient and constant use 
