50 THE FLORIST. 



as I do, so well, your readiness and desire to promote the interests 

 of all gardening pursuits. 



Hull. F. 11. Horner, M.D. 



We have a range of narrow lean-to houses in tliree divi- 

 sions of about 50 feet each, respectively heated with iron, 

 wooden, and slate tanks. In addition, our Orchid-house is 

 furnished with two wooden tanks with a path between them. 

 They were originally contrived as beds in which Roses in pots 

 were plunged and brought forward by gentle bottom-heat ; but 

 they fully answer the purpose to which they are now applied. 

 With the experience these houses give us, we proceed to a little 

 description. Any one intending to erect a tank should first 

 carefully consider what his wants are. Dr. Horner requires 

 one to afford him atmospheric as well as bottom heat, and 

 therefore we say, use iron ; for when the surface of the tank is 

 covered with a material in which the pots are plunged, there 

 will be abundant radiation from the bottom and sides to heat 

 the atmosphere, which perhaps will not be the case if the tank 

 is constructed of wood. Slate is entirely unfit for the pur- 

 pose : it cannot be depended upon ; for it splits with expan- 

 sion from heat, and from contraction in suddenly cooling. We 

 have made ours tight at last, after much trouble and expense, 

 by doubling it, with a waterproofing material placed between 

 the two thicknesses, and in this manner it answers admirably. 

 For greenhouse purposes, when the house is used merely as a 

 conservatory for plants in the winter, wooden tanks, in our 

 estimation, are superior to every thing else. For instance, the 

 portion of the 15()-feet range so heated alluded to above, is 

 on the following plan. Upon some 3 x S^-inch oak posts, 

 21 inches above the ground-line, with bearers framed into the 

 same 3 x 2i-inch placed edgeways, is fixed a tank, formed of 

 li-inch best yellow deal, entirely free from sap, dead knots, 

 and shakes. For the bottom, the boards are placed length- 

 ways, ploughed and feather-tongued, and bolted together with 

 § bolts and nuts ; sides and ends the same, 9 inches deep, put 

 together with back nails and white-lead in all joints. Down 

 the inside and centre of the tank, to within 6 inches of the end 

 farthest from the boiler, runs a l^-inch board on edge, 6 inches 

 deep, with fillet round the sides of the tank of the same height. 

 On these rest half-inch slates laid crossways, and beneath 

 them 5 inches of water circulates through a boiler, the flow- 

 pipe from which is introduced on one side of the division at 

 the end of the tank, about 2 inches from the bottom, whilst the 

 return-pipe is fixed in the bottom itself, and on the other side 

 of the division. This forms the heating apparatus; but to 

 make a plunging bed for propagation, the tank is deepened by 



