We have in this place purposely omitted to mention the many bulbs which may be grown in the green-house, preferring to treat of them in another place.

Any of the above plants may be procured at any wellstocked green-house, and are mostly low priced. The whole collection, if small plants were chosen, could be furnished for about seventy-five dollars.

Growth of Plants.-S Situation and Exposure. - Heat.-Moisture. - Temperature of Room. - Ventilation.- Washing.-Syringing. - Watering. -Choice of Pots.- Window Flower Tables. - Window Shelves.

O grow plants to perfection in a room is not an easy thing. To insure any degree of success, a careful and constant attention to details is necessary.

These details are all little things in themselves; they seem almost trivial; but their observance is imperative, if we would have our plants in healthy foliage and profuse bloom. It is by the neglect of all, or some of

these, that plants grown in rooms usually present

such a diseased, unhealthy appearance.

Any one of us can call to mind some friend, who, as we say, is always successful with flowers; has blossoms when no one else can, and whose plants are models of health and beauty. We laughingly say, the flowers are his friends; he knows them, and they bloom for him; and so it is, in fact; he knows their peculiarities, attends to their wants, feeds them properly, affords the requisite light and air. Is it then a wonder that for him the grateful flowers put on

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their richest dress of green, and reach out their perfumed blossoms?

But before we give rules for growing window plants, let us look at these little things, which may come under the head of general instructions. And, first, the

SITUATION.

We have decided to grow window plants, and we must now choose our window. Let it, if possible, face the east or south; that is, be one which receives the full rays of the morning sun. If we are unfortunate enough not to have such a window, choose the one having the most sun; the afternoon sun is better than none at all. There are very few plants which will flourish without sunlight, and, as a general rule, the more we can obtain the better. If you have a bay window, looking south, you need ask nothing better.

HEATING.

If possible, choose a room where the temperature at night never falls below forty to forty-five degrees. Let this heat be maintained by an open fire, or by an air-tight stove, on which a large pan of water should be constantly evaporating. A furnace is injurious to plants, by reason

of its dry heat only; the little gas escaping from our best furnaces is not sufficient to affect plants injuriously. And while speaking of gas, if possible avoid the use of gas light in the room; the unconsumed gas, always given off, is fatal to delicate plants, and hurtful to the most hardy. If you must use gas in the room, arrange glass doors to shut off your plants from the room, or give up window plants, and confine yourself to growth in Wardian cases. If a furnace is your only means of heating, provide for sufficient moisture by constant evaporation. Another objection to a furnace is, that it keeps the room too warm for a healthy growth of the plants.

The cause of so many window plants showing long, white, leafless stalks, with a tuft of leaves on the end, is, too great heat and too little light. Proportion the two, and you obtain a short, stocky, healthy growth. In rooms, this proportion is always unequal. In winter, there are eight hours of sun to sixteen of darkness; we keep the plant at a temperature of sixty to seventy degrees all the twenty-four. In a green-house, on the contrary, the temperature falls to forty degrees at night, rising, by the heat of the sun, by day, to a maximum of seventy.