garden where valuable tender perennial to the garden when a position can be and half-hardy plants are grown. They found where they may be drained to a are useful not only for the storage of depth of six feet. In such a pit, covthe plants which will not bear full ex- ered with a sash, and, in extreme somewhat to the requirements of their plants, a glass structure of some kind, shut off from the living-rooms, is a necessity. There is an unfortunate idea abroad that a greenhouse is an expensive luxury. Of course it may be made so, but is not so necessarily. Glass and the necessary lumber for the structure are not expensive, and their arrangement in a plain way is not beyond the ability of an ordinary carpenter. It will be convenient often to utilize part of a piazza or make a leanto against the wall of the dwelling, commercial houses, which secure the maximum of light, air, warmth, and convenience with a minimum of expenditure, and no outlay for mere show. The usual trouble with attached conservatories is that they have no proper heating apparatus, and depend for warmth on surplus heat from the house. The result of this is often that, in order to secure sufficient warmth, the ventilators must be closed and proper supplies of fresh air cut off. Small conservatories may be heated by oil-stoves, but these are a constant source of worry and trouble, and the fuel is more expensive than coal in most localities. The ideal heater, for conservatories as A Group of Japanese Lotus. well as greenhouses, is a hot-water circulation. This necessitates a stove to heat a coil of pipe, from which pipes lead through the house to an elevated open tank, and back through other pipes to the stove. This stove is located preferably in the cellar, from which no fumes of gas will reach the plants. One can fit up such a circulation with a coil of pipe bent to fit any round stove having pipes attached. A tight box or keg may be utilized for an expansion tank. Small self-feeding heaters, which are practically boilers, are now made at a moderate price. These require little attention, and will heat at least one hundred and fifty feet of two-inch pipe with the expenditure of half a ton of coal per month. The culture of plants in pots under glass offers difficulties unknown in the open, as the conditions are entirely ar tificial. All conditions of air, moisture, and heat are here regulated by the cultivator. Plants are often better, in the garden, for some judicious neglect, but this is never the case indoors. There is no royal road to the successful cultivation of plants, and one must simply acquire a general knowledge of the requirements of plant - life, study the growth of the special plants under cultivation, and modify the culture as observation of effects teaches one to be probably necessary. Professional florists of vast experience with some special plant, grown in large numbers under the best conditions, often fail in securing crops, so that the amateur should not be discouraged if the one or two plants grown do not quite respond to care. The successful grower must, in the first place, pot the plants properly, giving perfect drainage, and using soil through which the water disappears rapidly. Next, the various plants must be observed critically till their habits and requirements in the way of moisture are well known. Many plants are quickly ruined by careless watering, and yet there must be a sufficiency of moisture to keep them in good health. Potted plants are very deceptive, the earth often appearing moist on top while it is dust-dry below. These various points are soon learned by one who really cares for plants, though the successful waterer is apt to be born with an instinct for the work. As much air as possible, without draughts, ed in to finish out the season of should be given to growing plants. change. Dutch bulbs are the amateur's The little white thrips will soon notify best friends in winter, as they furnish one of close air, as the red spider does a wealth of gay flowers at about any of a hot and dry one. These invaders time desired, being, for the most part, should have no foothold in the house, easily grown and advanced or retarded but it is more difficult to keep out at pleasure. The smaller of these bulbs scale, mealy-bugs, and aphides. These may be grown with several in each fourare often introduced with new plants inch or six-inch pots, but the larger ones, from infested houses. The best way the Hyacinths, Daffodils, and Tulips, of attacking scale and mealy-bugs is are more effectively grown in Lily pans, with a spray of alcohol, and careful which are shallow pots only half the washing and scrubbing of plants where usual depth. These bulbs should be possible. Tobacco is very distasteful planted closely together, five or six in to aphides. A few thorough smokings an eight-inch pot, in separate colors. by burning tobacco stems over live Plant early in the fall in good open coals will rid the house of them. Such loam, without manure; water well, and tobacco fumes are very penetrating. set them in a sheltered place out of Where a conservatory is attached to doors. Ashes or sand are a fit coverthe house it is preferable to make a ing for them. Leaves are cleaner, but decoction of tobacco and evaporate it they harbor mice. Over all place as a precaution before the lice are ob- boards, to keep off rain and hard frosts. served. With a number of pots one has a store One does not have to look far to to draw on through the winter, it being find interesting plants for the greenhouse, and a list would necessarily be interminable. It may be suggested, however, that numerous crops and changes from season to season will prove interesting, and are secured from a selection of bulbous and deciduous plants to supplement the permanent decorative ones. A succession, for instance, would begin early in the year with Dutch bulbs, as Hyacinths, Tulips, Daffodils in variety, Alliums, Frezieras, Easter Lilies, also Azalias, Genistas, and Chinese Primulas. Later the tuberous Be Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum). gonias, Gloxinias, and fancy Caladiums simply necessary to bring them into an will keep the houses gay until perhaps the Chrysanthemums are crowd intermediate temperature before forcing. Ferns are indispensable in the garden and conservatory. Their popularity is a refutation of a saying, often repeated, that color is of the first importance in the flower garden. The general appreciation of ferns, whose beauty consists only in beauty of form, proves that people really appreciate this The Asplenium. element, as well as color; and hence form should be considered in selecting plants. The The fern family is a very extended one, comprising species and varieties, ranging among the hardiest of plants to those which revel in a tropical heat, and from those which survive some aridity to those which require an atmosphere reeking with moisture. ferns in general cultivation, however, require light, but not direct rays of the sun, protection from winds, and moderate supplies of moisture at the root. The greenhouse ferns usually resent moisture on the foliage and require watering underneath. location will often be found at the north side of the house. If the building is a very formal one, the bed had better be made plain and level, but a more informal house admits of a fernery constructed by making a raised bed, and sinking porous rocks and stones in it to quite a depth. Among these the ferns grow very hap pily, and, if deftly devised, such a fernery is very ornamental. The best compost will be equal parts of fibrous loam and leaf mould well mixed. This is also a good compost for most potted ferns. They make a more firm growth in a mixture composed partly of soil than in one of leaf soil and peat, in which they are often grown, especially when large specimens are desired quickly. A walk to the nearest woods will usually furnish a supply of fine ferns in considerable variety, or, if this is not convenient, the hardy plant dealers will furnish a good assortment. Among the best of these are the Maidenhair Ferns (Adiantums), Shield Ferns (Aspidiums), Spleenworts (Aspleniums), Royal Ferns (Osmunda), and the Common Polypody. Two curious species are the Hartford Fern, a climber, and the Walking Fern, the points of whose fronds droop to the ground, take root, and produce a new plant. The above. varieties are mentioned as readily available. One can, with more trouble, add rare and beautiful species which will prove of permanent interest. The hardy ferns are deciduous, and complete their growth in the summer and rest during the winter, so that they are not useful for the house and conservatory, where evergreen species are required. Properly potted, not too firmly, and in rather small pots, there is little difficulty in fern culture where For an out-of-door fernery a suitable the air is not dry, and heat is moderate. |