. The book of the garden. Gardening. WINDOW GARDENING. 425 this instrument indicates 40°, in a sitting- room 60°. When plants are kept in a dry atmosphere they rapidly lose their water of vegetation ; the sides of their pots are robbed at the same time; and it is im- possible for plants to suck out of soil thus partially dried the moisture demanded for the sustenance of their exhausted foliage. Such a state of things is inseparable from a sitting-room. To render the latter con- genial to plants, it would be uninhabitable by ourselves. The extent to which plants are injured in a common sitting-
. The book of the garden. Gardening. WINDOW GARDENING. 425 this instrument indicates 40°, in a sitting- room 60°. When plants are kept in a dry atmosphere they rapidly lose their water of vegetation ; the sides of their pots are robbed at the same time; and it is im- possible for plants to suck out of soil thus partially dried the moisture demanded for the sustenance of their exhausted foliage. Such a state of things is inseparable from a sitting-room. To render the latter con- genial to plants, it would be uninhabitable by ourselves. The extent to which plants are injured in a common sitting-room is strikingly illustrated by the condition of cut flowers. Let two clusters of fresh- gathered flowers be introduced into a sitting-room : place the one in the mouth of a narrow-necked jar of water, and arrange the other upon such a shallow pan of water as a deep dish will furnish. It will be found that the latter will be perfectly fresh days after the former are faded. The reason is, that in the narrow- necked jar the flowers have no access to water except through the ends of their shoots, and are surrounded with a very dry air; while, in the flat dish, they are able to absorb abundant water, because a large part of their surface is in contact with it, and are, moreover, surrounded by air incessantly moistened by the vapour which continually rises from the ; " Of this we may be sure, that darkness, dust, heat, want of ventilation, and all the other calamities to which plants in sitting-rooms are subject, are as nothing compared with the inevitable dryness of the air—which, indeed, acts injuriously not merely by exhausting plants of their water of vegetation, but by lowering the temperature of the pots in which they are grown, in consequence of the evaporation constantly taking place there. What makes the evil greater is, that the plants which are purchased for sitting-rooms are invariably brought into high condition by being grown in a damp atmosphere.
Size: 1461px × 1710px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectgardening, bookyear18
