ants. Gardeners, as
a class, those who have spent their lives among plants, show, so far as
we have observed, a longevity equal to, if not exceeding that of any
other class who are engaged in any of the vocations usually regarded as
healthy. We must admit, however, that we have never known of a case of
chronic rheumatism to be benefited in the least by working in
hot-houses, on account of the perpetual dampness of the air. On the
other hand, we know of a number of persons afflicted with various other
diseases, who have been noticeably benefited by working among plants:
perhaps it was owing to the health-giving bodily exercise required by
the work, rather than the supposed health-giving effects of the plants
themselves; we think the result was due to both. An eminent physician
cites a case in which his sister, aged fifty years, was afflicted with
tubercular consumption, her death, as the natural result of such a
terrible disease being expected at any time, but being an ardent lover
of plants and flowers, she was daily accustomed to move among her
plants, of which she possessed a large number, in her sleeping room as
well as many others in beds outside. Her friends reproved her for
sleeping in the same room with her plants; but the years came and went,
and she was still found moving among her flowers in her eightieth year,
surviving those, who many years before predicted her immediate demise,
as the result of her imprudence. Who will say but what the exhalation
from her numerous plants increasing the humidity of the atmosphere in
which she lived, prolonged her life? The above is but one of many cases,
in which tubercular consumption has been arrested and sometimes wholly
cured by the sanitary effects produced by working among plants for a
considerable time. We know of cases in which druggists, ministers, and
students from school, compelled to relinquish their chosen vocations on
account of failing health, have resorted to the nursery or hot-house. In
almost every case restoration to vigorous health was the result.

We contend, therefore, that this old superstition that house plants are
injurious to health, is nothing but a myth. The amount of carbonic acid
gas at night discharged from two dozen large plants, will not equal that
exhaled by one infant sleeper, as has been demonstrated by scientific
men. Because a few old cronies stick to the absurdity that "plants are
awful sickenin' things," it is no reason why sensible peo