Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/235

Rh principal attraction to the eye, it may be done in the greenhouse. But nothing of the kind should be allowed in the conservatory. The glass structures that are devoted to horticultural production are related to manufactures ; the conservatory is related to the drawing-room, and, in the broad scheme of horticultural work, it is not a workshop or a museum, but a garden under glass.

To render this covered garden attractive and interesting at all seasons should be the principal object of its possessor. It may indeed be gay with geraniums and calceolarias in the months of June and July, and a damp, cold, cheerless den during the remaining ten months of the year. It should be always attractive, and should at all seasons offer for admiration something fresh and good, and at all seasons it should be as destitute as possible of any exhibitions of manufacturing processes. For ensuring permanent attractions, permanent features are required; mere display is above all things to be avoided, for the mind needs food of a better sort than colour simply, however strong in tone and perfect in combinations. Noble plants that have a history, that endure for many years, that acquire local renown, that present striking outlines, that exhibit distinctive stages of development, are much to be desired, and the more of such that we can find of a constitution very nearly adapted to the peculiarities of our climate, the better for the tasteful furnishing of the conservatory. Above all things, the conservatory should be attractive in the dull months of the year, and then its occupants should not be such as require a high temperature, for it is not well to take a vapour bath every time the mind desires refreshment in the midst of vegetable beauty.

It will be understood, of course, that we regard as proper conservatory plants Dracnas, Palms, Agaves, Yuccas, Camellias, Acacias, Beaucarneas, Dasylirions, Azaleas, Oranges, Tree ferns, Bonaparteas, Lomatias, Rhopalas, and others of like character, notable for distinctness and elegance of outline, rather than for high colouriug, although amongst them we shall find some gay subjects. But we are no advocates for tameness and sameness in a conservatory. Given a sufficient breadth and variety of green furniture, and flowers may be employed with singular advantage. The stove, the greenhouse, and the pit will severally contribute of their productions to enrich the covered garden. The most tender plants, when in flower, will bear