104 
THE FLORISTS JOURNAL. 
and such as can afford even a decent show of such plants ought 
to have houses for their proper growth. 
There is another climatal variety of plants which are not 
adapted for window culture. These are polar plants and moun¬ 
taineers, both of which are exposed to much sun during the 
summer, and shrouded and protected by a mantle of snow during 
the winter. In the case of these, the sunny side of a mountain, 
or indeed any side of it, is warmer than a plain of the same 
elevation : and though the smaller elevation of the sun renders 
the momentary action less in polar climates, yet the deficiency is 
made up by the length of the day and the shortness of the night. 
Plants of this latter description can with extreme difficulty be 
made to thrive, or even live in a common garden, although their 
own soil is brought along -with them ; and if placed in a green¬ 
house or hothouse they certainly die. 
From these observations it follows, that in the choice of 
window plants, we must be guided by their natural latitudes and 
atmospheres ; and it is in, avoiding extremes here that the success 
of the window cultivator consists. He will be pleased to observe, 
that whatever soil he may place in the pot containing his different 
kinds of flowering plants, and though he gives some a copious 
watering, some a smaller quantity, and some none at all,—yet 
that there is an important circumstance in which they are all 
alike. By admitting or excluding the light of the sun, he may 
approximate the natural quantity of light which each plant 
requires ; and much more may be done in this way than is gene¬ 
rally supposed. Thus, for instance, by shading the plants in the 
morning and the evening, he may reduce the length of our 
summer day to one approaching the tropical character ; and by 
drawing his plants nearer to the glass or farther from it, he may 
approximate the different degrees of light which best suit those 
which grow in the clear sun and those which grow in the shade. 
All this he can do, though w r e believe there are very few culti¬ 
vators of window flowers—that is, of flowers in windows or in 
rooms—who practise it or know anything about its principles. 
There is, however, one circumstance which he cannot vary to 
flowers in the same apartment, and that is the atmosphere,'or the 
degree of moisture in it. That is common to the whole room, 
and of course to every plant in it; and therefore, though it is 
healthy for some, it is sickness and death to others. Then there 
