IVJA'BOW GARDENING. "|()5 
In making your choice of plants avoid the costliest favorites of the green- 
house ; i. e., it is better to take something which will thrive with ordinary cul- 
ture. Greenhouse plants need more care than the window-gardener can usually 
give. A healthy floweiing Geranium is more popular with nine out of ten than 
a Camellia, and is in proportion as much easier to grow. 
A great trouble among amateurs is too great a fancy for seed-grown plants; 
i. e., they purchase floiists seeds, and aim to grow their own plants by sowing 
the seed in the basket. It is hardly necessary to say failure is the general rule, 
except in the case of a few climbing plants, which will grow well anywhere. If 
the amateur does not know enough about propagation to grow his own plants, it 
is much better to buy them already started from a good florist. 
The list of plants may be arranged in several very distinct C?as.ses, as follows : 
1. Climbing Vines — 
The Tropceolum Lobhianum, flowers plentifully in winter, and its brilliant red 
flowers are very attractive. 
The Morning Glory will grow readily in a sunny window, and its flowers are 
indeed a glory. A small vase can be used to plant the seeds, and it can be sus- 
pended with libbons. 
The vine of the Sweet Potato is very graceful. Quite a good many who have 
admired a basket covered witli its leaves have felt a little chagrined to find it was 
nothing after all but a Sweet Potato vine. The tubers can be set into a glass 
small eriough to keep the root three or four inches fiom the bottom. Fill the 
glass witli water, and place it in a warm room ; give it two or three hours of 
sunshine each day, and in two or three weeks it will begin to grow. All through 
the winter it will continue to develop its glossy green leaves in profusion. The 
Biscorea Batatas is the best species for home culture. 
Among other climbing plants are Senecio scandens, (German Iv\%) a very free 
grower; Loniccra mirea ?'e/?Ci<?rtto, with fine yellow variegated foliage. 
There are no finer plants in general to be used than the Coboeas, Maurandias, 
Lophospermums, and Tropa3olum. The Variegated Leaved Cobaea is a great 
favorite, either to dangle from a basket or clothe a trellis. 
For Brooping or Trailing Plants the list is quite extensive. Lysimachia. or 
Moneyicort — old, and hardly yet superseded. 
Saxifragas, Sedum s, 
Linari'ts, Lobelia, 
Yellow Flowering Gasanias, Tradescantia, 
Miimdus nwscJiatiis, Nierembergia, 
Mimulus tigrinoides, Verbenas, 
Ice Plant, Mesemhrynnthemnms, 
The Partridge Vine, Bew Plant. 
The Strawberry Vine is a rapid runner, with leaves shaped like the strawberry 
but much smaller. Its flowers are white, and its seed-pods are formed of 
bright, cherry-red berries, which render the plant very ornamental. 
The Cranberry Vine has been used for basket purposes with great success ; its 
