INTRODUCTORY. 
5 
cerned, attempts have been made by philanthropic 
persons and by philanthropic associations to foster 
and encourage the new taste. The wealthy, when 
they have not window gardens, have the means 
of providing similar objects of enjoyment. Their 
wealth enables them to gratify their tastes; and 
these are not fettered by any considerations of 
cost. But in our cities and towns, the immediate 
surroundings of the poor—whose existence is too 
commonly cheerless and sad—are painfully dismal. 
Penury and suffering, too, add piquancy to the 
depression which is naturally caused by such 
dismal surroundings: and the efforts of those 
who have spent time and money in the endeavour 
to relieve the dull monotony of the lives of the 
poor, have been directed to a noble end. 
Whilst, however, the poor of our large towns 
feel more keenly than the well-to-do or the rich 
the necessity of having, in or about their dwellings, 
some such enlivening influence as would be pro¬ 
duced by the presence of plants or flowers, it is 
the rich who, from their more abundant means, 
have adopted 6 window gardening ’ to the greatest 
extent. But amongst all classes of town dwellers 
