WINDOW OARDENINQ. 249 
"Those we employ for this purpose, now are mostly of a fleeting character, 
and such as cannot be preserved in health for any length of time in living rooms. 
But if in addition to the best of these we select handsome leaved plants of a 
leatiiery texture, accustomed to withstand tiie fierce heats of hot countries, we 
shall find that the dry and dusty air of the living room is not at all injurious to 
them, and that it is quite easy to keep them in health for months, and even for 
years, in the same apartments. 
"Many plants that in England are considered as Exotics, are sold in Paris ia 
abundance for the deco- 
ration of apartments 
The demand for use in 
private houses gives rise 
to a large and special 
blanch of trade in many 
of the nurseries, and I 
know one Versailles cul- 
tivator who annually 
raises and sells 5,000 or 
6,000 plants of the 
bright-leaved Dracaena 
terminalis alone, and by 
far the greater part for 
room docoralion. " 
Although English 
plants are much better 
grown than the Paris- 
ian, yet those of the 
^atter appear the best ; 
the difference being 
caused by exceedingly 
tasteful and frequently 
peculiar arrangement, 
as well as by employing 
effective and graceful 
kinds What the Paris- 
ians do as regards ar- F,g. S.-Gymnostachyum VerBchafleltli 
rangement may be best gleaned if we describe the decorations for one of the 
balls of the Hotel de Ville: 
*' Entering the Salle St. Jean, the eye was immediately attracted by a luxuri- 
ant mass of vegetation at one end, while on the right and immediately round a 
mirrored recess was a very tasteful and telling display, made as follows : In 
front of the large and high mirror stretched a bank of mo.ss, common moss 
underneath, and ihu surface nicely formed of fresh green Lycopodium lenticula 
