Chapter XIII: The Double Window

Advantages of a Double Window.--Their Use in the North.--The Manner of decorating them.--Glass Stands.--Plants proper for the Double Window.--Grevillea, Kennedia, Blue Lobelia, Gesneria, Gloxinias, Achimenes, Brunfelsias, Torrenia Asiatica, Ixora, Echmea, Begonias.--Sparmannia.--Retractility of its Stamens.

Advantages of a Double Window.

After having done our gardening in the parlor, wishing for a little more room in which to pursue it still further, we came out of doors. Here also our work is completed. Let us then go in again.

In all countries where Winter brings in his train a long succession of vigorous colds, in order to guard the better against these, the inhabitants, instead of having in their windows but a single sash, use the wise precaution of having two--the outer one even with the outside of the house, the inner one even with the inside wall of the apartment. Thanks to this arrangement, the cold reigning without is so far excluded that a mild temperature is preserved in your chamber, while, at the same time, there remains between the two sashes a vacant space which is at your disposal for any uses to which it is susceptible of being put. It is the very thing for our gardening purposes.

The English like to keep avadevats there; by the Dutch, this space is dedicated to canary birds, which they understand perfectly how to rear, Holland being the country of all others where these birds do most abound. There is nothing, however, ladies, to prevent you from appropriating it to your favorite pets--flowers.

It is evident that whenever the interior sash is kept open, the interval between the two sashes receiving, as it then does, a portion of the atmosphere of the chamber, will of course be of the same temperature. This space, then, is equivalent to a little conservatory, either merely tempered or hot, according as the person who occupies the chamber is more or less chilly; and in this temperature all the cultures that can be conducted on a large scale in greenhouses, tempered merely, or hot, are equally possible on a small scale in the double window.

Manner of decorating it.

Before filling it with flowers, you must suspend there an elegant earthen-ware vase in which to put a plant from the order bromeliaceæ[12]--a Guzmannia, for instance, the leaves of which plant resemble those of the ananas; and in the centre of this foliage there appears a flower of so brilliant a red that one cannot steadfastly gaze at it without its fatiguing the sight. The size of this vase must be proportioned to the width of the window, and to the dimensions of the plants that you propose to cultivate there. It is best that the small pots which you have at the two sides be supported on shelves formed of panes of glass, because wooden stands would intercept the light too much. I think you would do well to follow, in arranging the plants in the double window, the advice I gave with regard to those in the garden at the window.

Plants proper to be placed here.

Place on the shelves of the glass stands at the two ends of the window-sill plants of a low and tufted nature: first, on the upper shelves, such as, without being precisely climbing or running plants, are taller than they are broad. There is nothing of this sort more graceful than the shrubs of the genus _Grevillea_. On the front or lower shelves place small plants which bear many flowers, such as the Kennedias and the blue lobelias of Surinam. Arranged in this manner, they will not be in your way when you wish to stand close to the outer sash to look out at the wintry scene, as a contrast to your tropical garden within. Your double window is an excellent place also for making a display of the plants you have obtained from seeds and slips reared in the hot portable greenhouse. Your choice is not a limited one by any means. In the course of my instructions, I name only some of those which I consider as most worthy of your attention. What I shall say in regard to their culture will be a sufficient guide to you, should you desire to admit into their society others that require the same temperature.

Gesneriaceæ.

The double window can also lodge, very much at their ease, plants of the order _Gesneriaceæ_,[13] of the three genera, _Gesneria_, _Gloxinia_, and _Achimenes_. I have already had occasion to remark with what perfect docility a leaf, or a mere fragment of a leaf, from a plant of this last named genus will take root when we wish to propagate it by slips.

The gloxinias are not less accommodating: their foliage resembles the most beautiful green velvet, and their flowers, in the form of a goblet, have in the inside a large spot, which is always of a different shade from the flower itself. The gesneriaceæ require a great deal of water and of heat; they must be watered several times a day, and whenever you have reason to fear that they may be seriously injured by the cold at night,--which would happen only when it freezes very hard outside,--you will take the precaution of placing them on your mantel-piece for the night. Their bloom continues very long, and will fully recompense you for your trouble. Treat in the same way the Brunselsias, the torrenia Asiatica, the yxoras,[14] the æchmeas, and the small begonias, which, in company with each other, inside of your double window, will constitute there a charming little parterre taken from the tropical flora.

Sparmannia.

Do not forget to add to the above one or two plants of the Sparmannia, a native of the Cape of Good Hope. In this pretty plant you may observe, while it is in bloom, the phenomenon of _retractility_,--with a contrary effect, however,--which renders the _sensitive plant_ so curious. Touch delicately with the end of your finger the summit of the stamens of a flower of Sparmannia in full bloom: instead of modestly closing, in imitation of our gentle mimosa, they will forthwith scatter, spreading out in every direction with a brusque and instantaneous movement. Some time after they will return to their former position. This property of the stamens of the Sparmannia, less generally known than that which manifests itself in the closing of the leaves of the sensitive plant, is not less curious or interesting to observe.

Forced Strawberries.

If you have two or three double windows instead of one, place pots of strawberries upon the glass stands of one of them; they will bloom in January, and will give, each one, five or six strawberries in February, when out of doors the earth will perhaps yet be hard frozen, or covered with snow, and the river will be covered with skaters. At such a time a single strawberry, gathered from a plant forced by your care, in one of your double windows, will have the right to seem supremely delicious to you.