258 



A CHAPTER ON GREEN-HOUSES. 



these Heaths, with their little fairy-like 

 bells ? What more fresh and airy than 

 these Azaleas ? What more delicious than 

 these Daphnes, and Neapolitan Violets ? 

 Why, one can spend an hour here, every 

 day, in studying these curious and beautiful 

 strangers — belies of other climes — that turn 

 winter into summer, to repay us for a little 

 warmth and shelter. Is there not some- 

 thing exciting and gratifying in this little 

 spectacle of our triumph of art over nature ? 

 this holding out a little garden of the most 

 delicate plants in the very face of wintet, 

 stern as he is, and bidding him defiance 

 to his teeth ? Truly yes ; and therefore, 

 to one who has enough of vegetable sym- 

 pathy in his nature to love flowers with all 

 his or her heart — to love them enough to 

 watch over them, to care for all their wants, 

 and to feel an absolute thrill of joy as the 

 first delicate bit of colour mounts into the 

 cheek of every blushing bud as it is about 

 to burst open, — to such of our readers, we 

 say, a green-house is a great comfort and 

 consolation ! 



There are many of our readers who en- 

 joy the luxury of green-houses, hot-houses, 

 and conservatories, — large, beautifully con- 

 structed, heated with hot water pipes, paved 

 with marble, and filled with every rare and 

 beautiful exotic worth having, from the bird- 

 like air plants of Guiana to the jewel-like 

 Fuchsias of Mexico. They have taste, and 

 much "money in their purses." They 

 want no advice from us ; they have only to 

 say " let us have green-houses," and they 

 have them. 



But we have also other readers, many 

 thousands of them, who have quite as much 

 natural taste, and not an hundreth part as 

 much of the " needful" with which to gratify 

 it. Yes, many, who look upon a green- 

 house as a sort of crystal palace, which it re- 

 quires a great deal of skill to construct, and 



untold wealth to pay for and keep in order. 

 The little conversation that we hold to day 

 must be considered as addressed to this 

 latter class ; and we dont propose to show 

 even them, how to build a green-house for 

 nothing, — but how it may be built cheaply, 

 and so simply that it is not necessary to 

 send for the architect of Trinity Church to 

 give them a plan for its construction. 



The idea that comes straightway into 

 one's head, when a green-house is men- 

 tioned, is something with a half roof stuck 

 against a wall, and glazed all over, — what 

 gardeners call a lean-to or shed-roofed 

 green-house. This is a very good form 

 where economy alone is to be thought of; 

 but not in the least will it please the eye 

 of taste. We dislike it, because there is 

 something incomplete about it; it is, in 

 fact, only half a green-house. 



We must have, then, the idea, in a com- 

 plete form, by having the whole roof — what 

 in garden architecture is called a " span- 

 roof" — which, indeed, is nothing more than 

 the common form of the roof of a house, 

 sloping both ways from the ridge pole to 

 the eaves. 



A green-house may be of any size, from 

 ten to as many hundred feet ; but let us 

 now, for the sake of having something de- 

 finite before us, choose to plan one 15 by 

 20 feet. We will suppose it attached to a 

 cottage in the country, extending out 20 

 feet, either on the south, or the east, or the 

 west side ; for, though the south is the best 

 aspect, it will do in this bright and sun- 

 ny climate very well in either of the others, 

 provided it is fully exposed to the sun, and 

 not concealed by trees at the sunny time of 

 day. 



Taking fig. 32 as the ground plan, you 

 will see that by cutting down the window 

 in the parlor, so as to make a glazed door 

 of it, you have the opening precisely where 



