around to the other side of the room, and
moving the bookcase or changing the big Boston fern over to the other
window, so it can be seen from the dining-room?

If the plants are to be kept in pots--and on the whole this will
generally be the more satisfactory method--several shelves of light,
smooth wood of a convenient width (six to twelve inches) should be
firmly placed, by means of the common iron brackets, in each window to
be used. It will help, both in keeping the pots in place and in
preventing muddy water from dripping down to the floor or table below,
if a thin, narrow strip of wood is nailed to each edge of these shelves,
extending an inch or two above them. A couple of coats of outside paint
will also add to the looks and to the life of these shelves and further
tend to prevent any annoying drip from draining pots. Such a shelf will
be still further improved by being covered an inch or two deep with
coarse gravel or fine pebbles.

[Illustration: If possible it is well to have the house plants in a
place where the moisture and temperature can be regulated for them
alone]

[Illustration: In almost any house it is possible to arrange a wide sill
with a metal or tile bottom where house plants may be properly cared
for]

This is much better than the use of pot saucers, especially for small
pots. Where a bay-window is used, if cut off from the room by glass
doors, or even by curtains, it will aid greatly in keeping a moist
atmosphere about the plants and preventing dust from settling on the
leaves when sweeping or dusting is being done.

A window-box can readily be made of planed inch pine boards, tightly
fitted and tightly joined. It should be six to ten inches wide and six
to eight inches deep. If a plain box is used, it will be necessary to
bore inch holes every six inches or so through the bottom to provide for
carrying off of any excess of water--although, with the method of
filling the box described in a later chapter, those holes would hardly
ever be called into service. Plants in the house in the winter, however,
are as likely to suffer from too much water as from too little, and
therefore, to prevent the disagreeable possibility of having dirty
drainage water running down onto several feet of floor, it will be
almost as easy, and far better, to have the box constructed with a
bottom made of two pieces, sloping slightly to the center where one hole
is made in which a cork can be kept. A false bottom