4 
A FEW NOTES ABOUT WINDOW PLANTS. 
I N determining the probable relation of bouse plants 
to health, we must consider (i) Is the plant itself 
healthy? — not necessarily growing or casting leaves, but 
is it either sickly in part or the whole ? If it be, it is 
unhealthy. Only thoroughly healthy plants contribute 
oxygen and take up carbon gases. (2) Are the plants 
infested with insects ? If so, this is an indication of dis¬ 
ease in the plant. Besides, although the bugs are scaven¬ 
gers, and in the long-run will destroy vegetable poison, 
yet, while at their work they make disease more deathly. 
A plant infested with scale bugs or aphis is not capable 
of performing natural functions. (3) Is the soil in which 
the plants grow composed of poisonous materials ? Clean 
sand, old sod, well-decayed muck or peat, with charcoal, 
or ordinary garden soil will do no damage. But I have 
seen pots filled with half-decayed swamp soil or vegetable 
refuse that was as poisonous as a swamp, and the alter¬ 
nation of drying and wetting brings out to the fullest the 
injurious exhalations. (4) Are the plants, or a part of 
them, standing in water that is allowed to accumulate or 
remain until putrid, and thus breed damaging spores of 
mildew? From working with my head often in a large 
Waltonian case I was attacked with vegetable parasites 
on my cheek. Water should not stand in saucers for any 
length of time. (5) There are plants that bear an inju¬ 
rious relation to us under all circumstances as others- 
naturally are our family doctors. I am inclined to think 
the sense of smell is our best guide in this matter. I 
don’t want any of the solanums in my conservatory. 
Hyacinths, just as soon as they begin to decay, are better 
cut and removed. A rose is always sweet and healthy in 
death or in life. Heliotropes are our friends. We have 
undoubtedly individual idiosyncrasies in this matter; to¬ 
me a plant or flower may be very helpful, when to my wife 
it is not. Balsams are generally injurious, while the little 
gilia will cure a headache for me. Plants have atmos¬ 
pheres about them, and so have we; and these sometimes 
accord and sometimes do not. Some people kill plants 
by their presence as much as some plants kill people. 
On the whole, good, healthy plants that are agreeable 
to us are advantageous to us. They are really a winter 
necessity, not only to cheer and enliven us, but to fur¬ 
nish ozone. As plants are generally grown, however, not 
much can be said for them, poor things ! Put them 
out of their misery! I prefer to have my conservatory 
given up largely to forcing such shrubs as deutzias and 
lilacs. These in midwinter, brought on in succession, are 
far better than hyacinths and callas. jr. p. Powell. 
THE ‘ CINERARIA. 
\ - 
HIS gay and interesting spring flowering plant, so 
long a favorite in the Old World, is now becoming 
quite popular in this country, and from the specimens 
shown at the various horticultural societies, we should 
think perfection in cultivation had been reached. It is 
but a few years since the first really good plants were 
shown at our exhibitions, and not until the last year have 
we seen such magnificent specimens as Mr. Barr, of 
Orange, N. J., is now producing, and exhibiting at the 
meeting of the New York Horticultural Society. Ten 
years ago, trusses of flowers six inches in diameter were 
considered something extraordinary; now, we frequently 
see trusses eighteen inches in diameter, absolutely per¬ 
fect in outline. There has also been quite as great an 
improvement in the colors as in the size of the flowers. 
And it is their intense colors and markings that make 
them so valuable for cut-flowers. We are indebted to the 
cineraria for a color that is exceedingly rare—that is, blue 
in its various shades, from the lightest to the darkest. 
Besides blue there are reds in all shades, seifs of blue and 
red, and white grounds tipped with red, blue or crimson, 
and some which are nearly white. From their diversity 
of color and free flowering habit, the cinerarias may be 
justly classed among the most useful flowering plants that 
we possess. 
The cineraria is an easy subject to manage, and can be 
successfully and profitably grown where many other plants 
would entirely fail. The very conditions that are neces¬ 
sary for success with this would be fatal to many of our 
popular flowering plants. ^Its requirements are low tem¬ 
perature, a moist atmosphere, and but little sun. In a 
light, dry situation it is subject to attacks from aphis,, 
which, if left undisturbed, soon do irreparable injury. So 
liable is it to attacks from these insects that, unless con¬ 
tinuous watchfulness is exercised, the aphides are sure to 
get established upon them, after which the leaves never 
have a healthy appearance, and without clean foliage to 
contrast with the flowers, the plant has really no beauty.. 
Cinerarias differ materially from most plants in not 
being able to bear anything approaching a dry atmos¬ 
phere; if submitted to such a condition, the influences 
are even worse than when soft-wooded plants are kept in 
the opposite condition, too wet; consequently, cinerarias- 
should never be introduced into the living-room—or, in 
fact, into the dwelling-house at all; neither should they 
have a dry place in the greenhouse, especially in houses 
where much air is admitted near the plants. They like 
plenty of air, but it should no.t be given in a way to come 
in a current directly through them. Neither should they 
be subjected to so much sun as most plants enjoy, for 
their soft, watery growth is not able to bear the conse¬ 
quent evaporation,- which in a short time gives them a 
rusty brown appearance. They will flower more or less- 
all the year, but it is in the winter and through the spring 
