242 gaede:;? management. 



Wheeler, of Warminster, received £100 for tlie stock of a single dahlia,— Queen 

 Victoria ; while the IMuscat Hamburg grape realized upwards of £800 ; and 

 the Golden Hambm-g, if we may believe common rumour, realized double that 

 amount. Facts like these would intimate that gardening pursuits have their 

 blue I'ibbon, while they yield many luxuxues of an inexpensive chai'acter. 



652. In former times, greenhouses were not only costly to fit up, but 

 ineflScient when erected. The proper principle of their construction was not very 

 well understood : heavy rafters, complicated sashes, at once costly and 

 inefficient, encumbered many a fine garden, as well as gardens of smaller pre- 

 tensions. To Mr. Fleming, the gardener at Trentham Hall, Sir Joseph Paxton, 

 and some other well-known cultivators, the merit is due of breaking through 

 the old system, and proving to the world that light inexpensive structures 

 were not only cheaper, but, actually, better adapted to then- intended purpose 

 than the old costly buildings. 



§ 1.— CONSERVATOEIES. 



653. This structure may well be termed a winter garden, for such is its most 

 useful purpose; it is really an essentially necessary adjmict to a well-ordered 

 country-house of any pretensions, afibrding means of exercise to the ladies and 

 visitors in inclement weather. In houses of smaller dimensions it is the store- 

 house for displaying the flowers as they are forced into bloom in the greenhouse 

 or frames, as well as for growing certain climbing and creeping plants festooned 

 and trained imder its roof and over its walls, and for other plants only 

 requiring i^rotection from frosts, which occupy its beds and borders. Even in 

 the absence of any heating ap2:)aratus, the conservatory, if properly glazed and 

 painted, will bring the temperature of the atmosphere to about the degree 

 enjoyed by our neighbours on the banks of the Loire, seven degrees farther 

 south, without the great extremes of summer heat and winter cold to which 

 they are exposed. In these days, therefore, of cheap glass, there is no reason 

 why every house, subui-ban or country, should not have its glass house propor- 

 tioned to its size ; and we shall be able to show that an additional rent of T^ per 

 cent, would amply repay any landlord for the necessary outlay. 



654. There are some few points which should influence the choice of a sito 

 for every kind of plant-structure, the first and most important being, that it is 

 not overshadowed on the south, east, or west, or exposed to the drip of trees or 

 houses in any direction. A lean-to house, which, however, is the very worst form, 

 may have any aspect between south and south-south-east ; south, inclining a 

 point or two to east, being the best ; as it receives the early sun as it gradually 

 rises, without being exposed to its full meridian glare. TLesjDan-roofcd house 

 would probably bo well j^laced which ranged from north-we:*' to south-south- 

 east also : it would thus receive all the morning sun on one side, while the other 

 would receive the meridian sun slightly obUque, and all the afternoon sun, 

 varying according to the angle of incidence of the roof. This would also be the 

 most favourable aspect for a ridge-and-furrow i-oof, whether it were sup^^ortcd 

 against a back wall, or had a rectangixlar roof with vertical lights on each side. 



