January 0.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
227 
they had to drag up hill on a new-made road; yet the 
head of this firm told me the other day, that if I had 
taught him of this way of making roads seven years back, 
he would have saved such quantities of money on the 
roads he laid down since that time, that he could now 
afford to face my cottage with Caen stone, if not build 
me a new one from the bottom ; aud I believe Mr. Barry 
is exactly of the same opinion, but I have not seen him 
to ask, since I heard of my new convert. Therefore it is 
some encouragement for mo to push on this new system 
all over the country; and if I hear of an old road-maker, 
or of a young gardener, who refuses to adopt my plans, 
if required, 1 know now where to supply their places 
from with confidence ; for the very man who was fright¬ 
ened at the mere idea of this new road last May, says 
now, that he shall never lay down a road on any other 
plan; so that the old adage about a man convinced 
against his will, being of the same opinion still, does 
not always hold good, after all; and depend on it, these 
great architects and builders look on us poor gardeners 
just now, with a jealous eye, seeing that they have lost the 
credit of making glass palaces, and concrete highways; 
but at the same time, I am equally confident, if we do 
not brush up a little better in another department of our 
craft, these very men will soon drive out some of us at 
the north gate. Look at the lecture which Mr. Owen 
Jones, the architect, who won the prize for colouring the 
“ Crystal Palace,” read the other night, before the Insti¬ 
tute of British Architects, in London, and substitute 
the words flower-beds, for his columns, girders, and all 
that sort of thing, and you might fancy Mr. Jones did 
little else, since he left college, but plant flower-gardens, 
according to the rules laid down in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener; and all this while we have been wrangling 
about landscape gardening—words, about which no two 
men on earth will quite agree as to their proper mean¬ 
ing. I see plainly enough, if these great men find out 
the highest of our best coloured plants, so as to be able 
to suit their figures to the different heights, they may 
walk in any day and take the laying out of all geo¬ 
metric gardens out of our hands ; at any rate, I earnestly 
entreat all those ladies, who are anxious about making a 
proper disposition of their flower-garden, plants, and 
colours, to read Mr. Jones’s paper on colours; it is 
reported, word for word, in the Times of December 17 ; 
aud I could also advise every young gardener, who can 
get hold of that number of the Times, to cut out the 
lecture, and commit it to memory; and in the mean¬ 
time, I shall transcribe the third paragraph of the 
lecture, as applicable to the subject on my own hands 
at present. “ No one can, in this world, hope to obtain 
i the universal acceptance of his views on any subject, 
I more especially on one so unsettled among us as deco- 
j ration. What pleases one person, will be distasteful to 
| another ; yet, as truth is always truth, however different 
minds may receive it with different impressions, if I cu n 
but arrive at an approximation to true principles in the 
decoration I propose, I may hope to obtain the voices of j 
the greater number of my professional brethren; and I 
must bear, as best I may, the disappointment of the j 
i rest.” D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Window Plants. —Were it not for the length to which 
the notice on balcony plants extended last week, this 
subject would have been introduced as an outrider, as 
very many other matters and distinct families of plants 
are contending lustily for early notice. In giving this 
subject such prominence, I am only meeting the wants of 
many readers, as evidenced by the enquiries, and mis¬ 
givings, and doubts of correspondents. Before entering 
upon a consideration of the subject, I may mention, that 
the list of plants for balconies in winter may be greatly 
increased where there is room. I merely instanced a 
few of the more striking ; but there is one which I 
would wish to add, the Berberis aquifolium —not only 
because it is cheap and an evergreen, but also because 
it produces its yellow blossoms early in spring, and the 
flower buds look pretty during the most of the winter. 
Where there is no balcony, a large box filled with 
Gypsocallis (Erica) Carnea, and patches of Russian 
violet, Winter aconite, Snowdrop, Dog-tootli violet, and 
crocus, stuck in along its sides, would look very interest¬ 
ing during the winter and early spring. If the box is 
well made, and the surface of the soil well covered with 
moss, the frost will not do any injury; but the little 
heath will rear its blossoms amid drifting snow and 
raging storms. 
To grow plants successfully in our dwelling rooms in 
winter, pre-supposes an amount of zeal and enthusiasm 
which intelligent amateurs only can furnish, and failures 
are the result alike of ignorance and even of know¬ 
ledge, when the latter is associated with carelessness or 
forgetfulness. Let us first, then, allude to some of the 
causes of disappointment, and thus elicit the light that 
reveals the remedy. 
First. In winter, the air of sitting-rooms is too dry for 
growing plants in general. In the matter of succulents 
it is somewhat different : the injury is soonest felt by 
plants with large, soft, somewhat spongy, open-pored 
leaves. A correspondent complains, that cinerarias 
removed from a frame to a cool airy greenhouse, 
kept shrivelling up their leaves. Minor reasons 
there may be,—the chief one is, that the more open 
and drier atmosphere of the greenhouse deprived the 
leaves of their moisture faster than the roots could 
absorb it. Watering at the root must be attended 
to; but syringing the shelves and foliage, especially 
during sunshine, until the plants were used to their 
new position, is quite as important. Such an effect 
would be more striking still, if such plants were brought. 
into the dry air of a room. In mild weather this 
would not be so much perceived, because the fire would 
not be so large, consequently the air not so dried, 
while the fresh air rushing in at every crevice, by -win¬ 
dow and door, would be amply supplied with moisture ; 
and besides, at times the window might be opened—and 
should be opened. But here, as in the case of plant 
houses, the season of keen frost, however short, is the 
most Lying: not only is the air of the room dry, but 
that which finds its way from the outside has also had the 
moisture condensed from it. To supply evaporation from 
the foliage, water is given judiciously to the soil,—and so 
far right; but then evaporation is not confined to the 
foliage—the air is not merely dry, but somewhat warm 
withal, and moisture is rising freely from the watered 
soil,—nay, finding its way through the sides of the pot, 
because wise men have insisted, and continue to insist, 
that pots must neither be painted nor glazed, nor burnt 
hard, nor anything but beautifully soft and porous, 
for then there need be little bother about draining; and 
the consequence is, that the perspiration from the leaves, 
surrounded by dry heated air, cannot be met by absorp¬ 
tion from the roots; because the cold produced by evapor¬ 
ation from the surface of the soil and the sides of the 
pot has prevented them from sucking in freely, though 
surrounded with plenty of moisture. The remedies 
are simple, but efficacious. Pots glazed or painted on 
the outside, the use of double pots, the putting the 
common pot inside of beautiful vases of china or other 
material, filling between them, at top at least, with moss, 
and in either case covering the surface with moss, would 
keep the roots in an equable state, as respects moisture 
and temperature : the roots would absorb more freely, 
because not cooled down by evaporation. But there is 
