THE LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY PIT. 85 
likely to meet the desired object. The pit shown below 
has two distinct aspects and two uses. The Lily being 
stubborn in its nature to obtain early, should be planted 
on the south side of this pit ; and the Helleborus, being 
quite the reverse, should be planted on the north side 
of it. I propose that this pit should be sixty feet long, 
and five feet wide inside on each side of it, built with 
four-and-a-half-inch work throughout; three feet high 
at the back from the floor, h h, to the ridge, and one foot 
Fic. 21.—FORTY FEET SECTION OF LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY PIT, 
References to plan.—a a, ground line; B, south aspect; c, north aspect ; D, middle 
wall; EE, underground chambers for heat; /7, partition walls, to be pigeon- 
holed, to admit of the heat passing from chambers GG to EE; AA, slate floor. 
six inches in front; the sashes made to slide as is usual, 
so that they may be taken off and put by for the 
summer months or used for other purposes, as the 
Lilies and the Hellebores do not require them on after 
May. In fact they will be much benefited by full 
exposure to the influences of the rains and air all 
through the summer months till November. My ob- 
ject isto make permanent plantations of both the Lily- 
of-the-valley and the Helleborus niger in the soil, a 
