300 



THE (JAliDEJS'KlVlS MOMJILV 



[October^ 



turi's boiioath allow tlio c^toss of the snioko. 

 There are Ibiir elbows to the pipe, (he last one 

 resting on a wooden bracket out-side of the 

 house, where it is held seenrely by strong wires. 

 A wide tabic runs along the front of this house. 

 A narrow pathway intervenes l»etwecn this and 

 the stage of four steps which fills all the rest of 

 the house, except the pathway between the two 

 stages which runs from the main path to the 

 door; that opens three-fourths of the way from 

 the east end, and is placed in the north wall. 

 From the door we step into a narrow passage- 

 way, or shed, lighted l)y a window in the east 

 end, and leave it by a door in the west end. 

 This passage protects the house at the north, 

 and prevents a draft of cold air when the door is 

 opened. Three flat wooden shutters on top 

 allow of ventilation. The gla.ss in front is also 

 set on- hinges, and permits of more or less ven- 

 tilation. 



When the sun becomes too powerful, panes 

 made of lath are laid over the roof, and are left 

 there all Summer to protect it from hail. They 

 make a subdued light and prevent the trouble of 

 white-washing the glass. 



The whole cost of this house was almost ex- 

 actly SI 00.00 ; the lath-work for the roof cost- 

 ing an extra S4.50. It has been used nearly two 

 Winters. The owners have had no trouble this 

 Winter, with gas, since substituting the terra- 

 cotta pipe for an ordinary sheet iron one, which 

 in the previous Winter rusted Into holes and 

 allowed the ga.s to escape, and do some slight 

 damage. This house is exposed to all the north 

 blasts ; but so fiir no flowers have been lost hy 

 cold. The stove is attended once in twent3^-four 

 hours, and consumes about one ton of coal in a 

 season. It is a self-feeder, but is never filled up 

 high enough to require the feeder. 



Another house about eleven feet wide, and 

 sixteen feet long, (we could not get the exact 

 dimensions) faces the east, and is built up 

 against a high back building facing west. The 

 stove stands in the middle of a square left in the 

 centre. The pipe to this is galvanized, and goes 

 up straight through the roof where it is held in posi- 

 tion by wires fastened to the Avail. Dm-ing high 

 winds gas has sometimes been thrown back into 

 this greenhouse ; but no serious disaster occurred 

 till this Winter, when a varnish which had been 

 applied to the outside of the pipe had, unknown 

 to the owners, found entrance, and with stringy 

 festoons had formed a barricade, which on one 

 dark night, sent out such a volume of gas, as 



' nearly stripped every leaf, from every plant in 

 the house. Some few j)Ianls were entirely 

 killed. The only (»nes escaping injury were 

 Amaryllis, and jieristrophe angustifolia, wliich 

 with its gay yellow and green leaves, and bright 

 rosy-purple flowers, seemed almost too jubilant 

 amidst the general desolation. We had seen the 

 whole place a short time before in a blaze of 

 beauty. The contrast was sombrt'. The stately 

 Callas in bud and flower, and shorn of their 

 leaves, looked like dignified poverty. This 

 house has a high shelf at the back, running the 

 full length of the house, and near enough to the 

 roof to allow only plants of moderate height to 

 be accommodated. This shelf held some earth, 

 or tan on which the pots were set. Kenilworth 

 Ivy and Tradescantia zebrina were planted 

 along the edge and fell in lovely green drapery 

 nearly to a second shelf below, where ferns and 

 other shade loving plants were kept. The under 

 shelf extended front as far :us the door, which 

 was in the north end, and across the south end, 

 meeting a shelf which extended the whole length 

 of the front, and around again to the door. 

 Hanging baskets were suspended to the roof, 

 and wall-pots to the north wall. The peristro- 

 phc filled one of these and trailed down the side, 

 making gayety amid the gloom, and assisted 

 somewhat by a stately Cyclamen in another 

 wall pot, the flowers t)f which remained unin- 

 jiu'cd, while a few leaves had been burned up 

 completely. The floor of this house was per- 

 haps eight or ten inches below the surface of the 

 yard. 



Another house of much less pretensions, waa 

 made of rough boards up to the height of the 

 window, which were of old window frames fas- 

 tened together, as was the roof and east end, the 

 house facing south. The west end was partly 

 formed by a fence and partly by rough boards. 

 The back was a storehouse, which protected it 

 entirely from the north. This house is heated 

 by a self-feeding stove that stands near the door, 

 wliich is in the south-west corner. The pipe 

 runs up through the roof. Two wide shelves ex- 

 tend along the back of the; house, one above the 

 other, the upper being the narrowest. The lower 

 shelf extends along the east end. A small shelf 

 is placed high up at the west end. This is rather 

 a cool house ; the Begonias, and other heat lov- 

 ing plants, declined to flourish there till made 

 quite warm. The plants that could bear a 

 coolish atmosphere flourished and bloomed in 

 exquisite beauty. The Zonale Greraniimis Dr. 



