36 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN aUIDE. 



variety known, and on a thorough good wall, and in a thorough 

 good border, it will pay well as an out-door grape. 



Is ow let us turn to another method of growing grapes ; and I 

 shall, for a few moments, address myself to the thousands who dwell 

 in subiirban residences, which considerate builders have furnished 

 with little glass boxes, yclept " conservatories." I need not explain 

 at length what I mean, except to say that the conservatories 1 now 

 refer to are such as are generally too small to be of any use as 

 plant-houses, and while being like ovens in summer, and ice-wells 

 in winter, are usually degraded into lumber rooms, and are chiefly 

 conservative of spiders, dolls, and spare pieces of carpet. Every- 

 where in the suburbs of London there are thousands of these 

 "conservatories ;" and if the owners did but know exactly what is 

 the best use to put them to, grapes would be grown in such plenty, 

 that they would become a common article of diet with the middle 

 classes. These little conservatories, and all larger conservatories 

 that resemble them in being lifted up above the ground level, and 

 exposed to extremes of temperature, make first-rate graperies. For 

 a few shillings in many instances, and for one or two pounds in any 

 ease, one of these conservatories could be furnished with a vine that 

 would produce, after three years, grapes worth, on an average, five 

 to ten pounds per annum ; aud instead of the house looking forlorn 

 at all seasons, and being pronounced a nviisance, as is the case 

 with thousands such, it would be rendered beautiful by the noble 

 leafage, and still more noble bunches of the vine ; the green leaves 

 and the purple grapes would redeem the character of the conserva- 

 tory ; and on summer evenings it might prove to be the best of places 

 for ladies to gossip aud work, or for the other sex to smoke, and 

 debate — say the affairs of the country. To convert one of these 

 elevated conservatories into a vinery, it is necessary first to prepare 

 the border nearest to it, if it needs preparing. Take care it is not 

 made over-rich with manure ; a moderate quantity may, perhaps, be 

 good. Next plant a strong Black Hamburg vine in such a position 

 that it may be conveniently trained up the wall in one clean rod — 

 mmA, only one — and at last be taken into the house, through an 

 aperture made by knocking a brick out. Then, in its after-growth, 

 let it be trained a foot from the glass on wires fixed for the pur- 

 pose, and prune it on the spur system, and in due time you will 

 reap, if you faint not. My neighbour, Mr. Oubridge, a spirited and 

 talented nurseryman, in Stoke Newington, took me, one day last 

 summer, into one of these little conservatories, which he manages 

 for a customer, and I saw what a Black Hamburg could do in a glass 

 box, which is an oven in summer and an ice-well in winter. The 

 place measured ten feet in length, and six feet six inches in width ; 

 it had brick walls on each side, a glass roof and a glass front. 

 The vine was trained in the usual way ; it covered seventy square 

 feet, and there were no less than eighty bunches, averaging 1 lb. 

 each, and on the 9th of September they were just beginning to 

 colour. If eighty bunches of Black Hamburgs, when ripe, are not 

 worth a five-pound note, then this number of the Ploeal AVoeld is 

 not worth a farthing, and my name is not Shieley Hibbebd. 



