78 
ladies’ flower gardener. 
room containing them was fitted up much in the same way as an 
ordinary library, with abundance of light shelves round the walls, 
and a large table in the middle of the room, on which were placed 
the pots containing the plants. At night, the room was lighted 
up by an elegant glass lamp, and it was heated by one of those 
ornamental stoves which are so common on the Continent Alto¬ 
gether, it had a very handsome appearance. 
The Chinese are very attentive to the house culture of man) 
of the orchideous epiphytse, and thereby greatly increase the 
beauty and the fragrance of their apartments ; they have them 
in ornamental vases and baskets, and even suspended in the air, 
where they last for many years and flower beautifully. Some of 
them continue in flower for many months, and diffuse the most 
delightful fragrance during the night.* 
The reason why the succulent and epiphytous plants answer 
so well for house culture is, that their winter is one of drought 
and not of cold, and that the latter especially have little, and 
some of them no mould at the roots in their natural situations. ! 
But there has been hitherto a prejudice against, or at all events 
an ignorance of, and want of attention to, the culture of succu¬ 
lent plants in this country. This is unwise; for many of them 
are exceedingly beautiful, highly fragrant, and better adapted for 
house culture than any plants whatever. They are singularly 
curious and varied in their structures ; and, generally speaking, 
they require less light, air, and moisture, than other plants. 
Next to them, in point of eligibility for house culture, may be 
reckoned such plants as have coriaceous leaves, that is, have their 
leaves firm, and with a smooth and compact epidermis,—such as 
oranges, pittosporums, myrtles, and others of similar texture; 
these are found to have organs much better adapted to confined 
* Renanthera coccinea is one of the finest of these, and was first dowered 
in this ?ountry by the author of this paper. 
