260 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
having settled his plant to his mind, retires, and the lady 
is free to act as she pleases. If he is the right man, she 
takes every care of his gift, waters it, and tends it care¬ 
fully with her own hands, that all the world may see and 
know that the donor is accepted as a suitor. But if he 
is not a favorite, or if stern parents object, the plant is 
removed from the vase, and the next morning finds it 
withered on the veranda or on the path below. In a 
word, if you are not the right man, it is quite evident 
that this phase of window-gardening must be a difficult 
and disappointing one to carry on in Japan. 
But one really might go farther, and say that all kinds 
of window-gardening must be carried on under diffi¬ 
culties. I know somewhat of the troubles of gardening 
in town, and shall not deceive you by saying that window¬ 
gardening is easy ; there is, however, so much pleasure 
mixed up with the difficulties, that if those of you who 
have not done so will try it, you will never rest contented 
until you succeed. 
But how to begin, that is the question. Flower-pots, 
seeds and plants, and even soil or earth in which to plant 
them cost money—not much, perhaps, but still sufficient 
to deter some from making a commencement. Now, a 
bit of turfy sod from the roadside is all you will at first 
require. If flower-pots are not obtainable no one need be 
disheartened; an old tin can, a cigar-box—anything, in 
fact, which will hold earth and allow waste water to run 
away will do. Of course, I know that you will do better 
than this, but even if some of you actually do resort to 
these homely makeshifts you will not be the first to do so, 
and it is better to grow a few pretty plants in an old 
starch box than to have no flowers at all near your home 
in the town. 
One of the great charms of window-gardening is the 
interest it excites in us, and the amount of pleasure a 
window-gardener obtains during his rambles, for I need 
scarcely say he will be most anxious to see the plants 
grown in other windows besides his own. Then at holi¬ 
day times every excursion into the country is doubly at¬ 
tractive, for, of course, a few common ferns or trailing 
bits of roote'd ivy will be carefully dug up and carried 
back to town for the little garden at home. A few 
primrose roots from a mossy hedge-bank, or five or six 
bulbs of the common yellow daffodil from the fields, will 
make the smallest window interesting in the spring. 
Of course I do not advocate the wholesale collection and 
destruction of our prettiest wild-flowers in the way now 
common near most towns, but I feel sure no intelligent 
proprietor would begrudge the removal of a few roots if 
he were sure they really were not to be carried away 
wholesale and sold. Apart altogether from the decora¬ 
tive or beautiful aspect of flowers and green foliage 
in windows, such things have a teaching power pecu¬ 
liarly their own, and this is especially so where there are 
children. One of the best of lessons to instil into the 
minds of children is that all flowers are beautiful, even 
the most common ones, for it is these that our greatest 
poets have most delighted to honor. Daisies, bluebells, 
primroses, daffodils, snowdrops and violets, wild-roses 
and woodbine have all been woven into song and story 
from the time of Chaucer to the days of Tennyson. The 
one great charm which lingers round our garden blos¬ 
soms is their beautiful reality. They are essentially 
genuine. If you put wax flowers or fruits into your win¬ 
dows or on the tables of your rooms, no one with any 
taste will waste a second glance on them; even the child 
who at first was taken with their bright colors will soon 
forget them, but this is never so of real flowers. 
The best soil or earth for fuchsias and geraniums—in¬ 
deed, for all the ordinary kinds of plants grown in win¬ 
dows—is what a gardener calls “fibrous loam.” This is- 
obtained from upland pastures and sheep-walks, and con¬ 
sists of a mellow, friable, nut-colored earth rich in vege¬ 
table fibre. This should be cut in layers about three 
inches in thickness, and may be stacked up until wanted 
for use. Broken up into rough pieces the size of hazel¬ 
nuts, this sort of earth contains all the elements really 
necessary for a plant’s existence. As before mentioned, 
a few sods of fibrous earth of this kind may often be ob¬ 
tained from a grassy roadside. When prepared for pots 
it should not be too finely pulverized. One of the most 
common of errors into which inexperienced window gar¬ 
deners fall is that of using finely sifted earth for plants— 
that is to say, soil destitute of fibrous rootlets and other 
organic material. It is from this fibrous matter, when 
acted upon by water, heat and air, that the plants derive 
their food. The tips of the tiny roots of a fuchsia or a. 
myrtle, for example, are really hungry little mouths eager 
to suck up nitrogenous matter soluble in water, so that, 
the soil, apart from its mechanical use of retaining a plant 
firmly in an erect position, must contain organic or manu- 
rial matter easily dissolvable in water. But if any ordi¬ 
nary earth be taken, you may safely leave your plants to> 
manage their own chemistry if you place good drainage 
material below the soil and water regularly and keep' 
their leaves free from dust and insects. As is well 
known, rain-water is best. Every gallon of fresh rain¬ 
water contains about half a grain of ammonia salts, and 
Liebig, that great agricultural chemist, calculated that 
this quantity per gallon is amply sufficient to nourish a 
forest of oaks. Thus rain-water is the best you can use 
for your pet plants, and in towns it is rendered still more 
nourishing, owing to the soot collected by it as it falls on 
the roofs ere it finds its way into your water-tub below. 
Drainage. —Broken bits of earthenware or of flower¬ 
pots are most generally placed as drainage beneath the 
soil, but the ’action of these is mechanical only, and as a 
substitute for these oyster-shells, broken bones, charcoal, 
nodules of common coal, or even cinders may be used,, 
containing as they all do plant food in a soluble form. 
It is a good plan to put a layer of moss over the drainage 
to prevent the soil washing down and blocking up the- 
drainage hole in the flower-pot. For all strong-growing: 
plants old broken bones may be mixed with the soil with 
advantage. 
Watering. —Now, as to the watering of your plants, 
it is necessary to be methodical, and a little practice will 
teach you more than anything I can tell you here. Ther 
best plan is to look over your plants every morning. 
Thus you will perceive that the four great essentials of 
healthy plant life are heat, air, light and constant moisture. 
That all plants like heat rather than cold is proved by 
