116 



A COUNTRY RESIDENCE IN THE ELIZABETHAN STYLE. 



wooden frames for hot-beds should be five and 

 a half to six feet long, and three and a half 

 wide. All pits should be from seven and a 

 half to nine feet, by four, to four and a half 

 wide ; but it saves immense trouble to have 

 all the pit lights of the same dimensions ; 

 they are more handy to stow away, it matters 

 not where they are used, and it is proper 

 always to have a few spare ones. In using 

 these lights against a wall, no matter whether 

 one or a dozen be required, the ends have 

 simply to be matted to keep out the cold ; 

 and whether there be six feet or sixty thus 

 protected, there are but the two ends to mat. 

 There are several considerations against using 

 the wood framing ; among these, the flat top 

 being exposed, the rain Avill run in somewhere, 

 for there is nothing to keep it out ; in the 

 next place, the glass is too far from the plants. 

 The advantage of using the light only is that 

 it can be placed nearly upright if necessary, 

 or sloping out ; and in very severe winters mats 

 can be used all over them, and be easily kept 

 In their places ; not so if they project like a 

 frame. If it be proposed to have framing on 

 purpose, why, we might as well build a green- 

 house at once. Our diagram gives a very 

 good idea of what we propose, both as to the 

 coping and the glass ; a slate coping, is all 

 that need be put. This material is no Aveight 

 for the wall, will easily fasten, and although 

 much has been said for and against copings to 

 Walls, it is one of those instances of contro- 

 versy in which one or both parties look but to 

 one side of the question. One says the trees 

 on a wall ought to have all the rain, and the 

 coping is only good in winter ; but all things 

 under artificial treatment require to be ma- 

 naged consistently all through. AVe all know 

 walls are a great protection to fruit trees, as 

 well as other plants ; but they have their 

 evils as well as their benefit, unless we coun- 



teract them. The trees on a wall require the 

 nourishment of the rains from which they are 

 shielded, because when the wind is blowing 

 from the back, the ram never touches them ; 

 but if we, by artificial treatment, deprive a 

 plant of any particular advantage, it is our 

 business to supply it. Wall fruit trees, under 

 proper management, have the advantage of 

 moisture over their foliage, when they want it 

 only, and thus escape an excess of wet which 

 those unprotected do not. This moisture is 

 supplied by syringes, and not one gardener in 

 two takes the trouble to give it them. Syr- 

 inging is one of the most efficacious opera- 

 tions imaginable ; nothing keeps a plant so 

 clear of vermin ; nothing disturbs the pests 

 of the walls so much. The fineness or coarse- 

 ness of the holes through which the water is 

 forced determines the force with which it can 

 be thrown against the trees. Before the buds 

 open at all, it cannot be too strong, for the 

 use of it then is to clean the stems, and wash 

 out the dirt and vermin or eggs that may be 

 behind them. When the growth is young 

 and tender, it can hardy be too fine, for al- 

 though driven with as much force as we can 

 from the engine, there is no weight in such 

 small particles to damage the young growth. 

 Now the syringing under glass becomes still 

 more necessary, so also does it under a coping, 

 for as neither the rains sloping from the back, 

 nor the downright rains can reach the plant, 

 it would lose the necessary moisture alto- 

 gether, if not artificially supplied. Pegs may 

 be driven into the ground to prevent the light 

 from slipping outwards, or a narrow board 

 with a ledge for them to rest on, and when it is 

 necessary to remove the lights, there will be no 

 vestiges of the temporary protection remaining. 

 The coping to the walls is found very beneficial 

 to many half hardy and tender climbing plants, 

 and is never detrimental to anything. 



A COUNTRY RESIDENCE IN THE ELIZABETHAN STYLE. 



We copy from Brown's Domestic Architec- 

 ture — an English work, very little known 

 here — the pleasant, comfortable-looking, coun- 

 try house, /which makes our frontispiece. 

 It is designed in that later kind of Gothic, 



which some architects call the Tudor, and 

 others the Elizabethan style. 



Our object in placing it before such of our 

 readers as are interested in rural architecture, 

 is mainly to point out its beauties and defects, 



