The Evening critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1881-1885, 1884-11-29
FLOWERS & PLANTS
For the Dedication of the preSi-
dent and His Guests.
WHITE HOUSE HOTHOUSES.
somethins About the Floral Arrange
ments for This Winters Receptions
"A New Conservatory Wanted
Executive Rose Culture.


The lighthouses adjoining tho White
House and under the care of Mr.. phister,
the Executive gardener, have been re-
arranged and placed In order for the season
about to open.
Although embarrassed by insufficient
appropriations and urgently in need of re-
pairs and improvements, tho hothouses
present moro beautiful appearance than
ever before.
Their most serious defects arc the made.
quate heating apparatus aud the decaying
flooring, which can only be remedied by
more liberal allowances from Congress.
Their principal charms arc the taste dis.
played in their arrangement, the success in
raising the most delicate and rare flowers
and tho ingenuity with which tue flowers
Chat arc at the height of their season and
perfection Of their beauty are brought
prominently to view and every advantage
taken of their short-lived grandeur.
The work outside the lighthouses has been
pretty generally suspended for the winter.
The fOwerbeds arc covered and protected
from the cold, fountain-basins are filled
with leaves and evergreens, and all the in
dications of winter are observable.
The lighthouses are occupied mainly as
they were last winter. Tho doorways
from the White House corridor and state
dinipg.room omen into tho beautiful
palm house, where, amid coral rockery and
graceful grottos, tall palms Of many rare
varieties mingle In most artistic and
effective group, and present very at
tractive sight.
From this apartment tho conservatory,
with its cooler aud tropical wings, is
reached, and abounds with rare and won
derful plants.
The tropical end is, perhaps, specially
interesting and instructive, many Of its
treasures being the only specimens of their
kind in the country.
From this apartment the visitor de-
ends TO the camelia, fern and primrose
house, radiant and brilliant with color and
delicious in perfume, and from it he passes
into the rosehouses and tho propagating-
house and in among the cold frames for
pansies and violets.
The rosehouso Is perhaps tho most beau
tiful, Thousands of plants blooming and be-
ing robbed twice day of their half.blown
beauties.
Although the flowerbeds of the White
House grounds contained over 100 varie-
ties Of roses during the season, and will
have a still larger assortment next year,
only about dozen varieties land these tho
most familiar and popular) arc preserved
during the winter in the rosehUuses.
Hundreds of jacqueminots mingle their
royal crimson with tho most delicate teas
and whites. The Marechal Mel is repre-
sented by hundreds of beautiful specimens,
as are also the Mary Won Hoot, Cornelia
Cook, Catherine Mermet, Nephitoes bon
salene and pearl des jardns.
The grapery is an attractive sight, al
though not entirely successful in its vint-
| age.
| The gnarled vines of the Black Hamburg
and Muscatine, entwining over the walls and
ceiling, form rustic canopy, to which
Towering plants lend the necessary bright
| ness of color.
Far the most interesting feature of the
| collection TO The curious visitor Is the as
sortment of grial and terrestrial orchids.
Nearly one hundred varieties Of these Won
ders OF the plant world are successfully cul-
tivated, some of them so rare as to at
| tract the interest of botanists and scientists
throughout the country. Not the most
beautiful or the most wonderful, but the
most striking and odd of these plants are
| the nuns plant and tho Holy Ghost flower.
The former in each blossom presents q
perfect miniature of o nuns head sur.
rounded by the conventional white bonnet
| showing the features of the face with start.
| ling fidelity to nature, and embracing neck
| and shoulders in the tiny floral representa-
ton.
In tho inner recesses of the Holy Ghos
flower, amid the petals of tho snowy flora
cup, tiny dove may BIO discerned, it
| wings spread its head lowered, its fee
perching just as though tho little visitor
had just alighted to drink tho dew drol
| SPARKLING in the flowers cup.
Other of the orchids find their striking
feature in their resemblance to butterflie
and creeping things, spiders from which
one almost instinctively shrinks back
Others possess interest, and claim admira
tion on account of their gorgeous colors
their curious design, their strange forma
ton.
Tho aerial varieties are perhaps the mos
curious. their life and strength seeming tt
DO inhaled through their roots that find N
resting place in the soil, but spread ant
grow in the air, the plant itself clinginl
to wall or board.
The orchids are the wonders and oddities
of plant life, and no collection in the coun
try presents better opportunities for theil
study and observation.
The attractions and curiosities Of the FIX
ecutive plant-palaces are too numerous +
be described or barely referred to, but tn
lutdHb Oh CulllNdIluH huu ulSplhy ARC Ia
from being satisfactory to the gardener
The plans which he urges and the Presiden
approves, and which will probably
urged upon Congress, contemplates yer.
effective improvement.
1t is proposed that tho eastern window
of the East Room should open upon larg
conservatory of crystal lights and iro
fTameworks circular or elliptical in form
and so arranged as to admit of circula
gallery on level with the East Room floor
and lined and surrounded with rare an
beautiful Towering plants, while LOOKING
down over the railing, on lower level
would be an imposing arrangement of ferns
palms and tropic plants that would presen
an attractive sight.
This plan, involving an expenditure {
$50, 600, would add most attractive featur
to the White House, obviate the present n,
cessity for filling the East Room wit
plants on reception nights, and would be
every way beautiful and desirable in
provement.
Reduced Rates TO the WOrlass FL
position at New OrIea9NsTIa Ii.
| ID. a..