246 gaude:^ management. 



666. Through some of the darker recesses of the house a stream of tepltl 

 water might flow amid fragments of rock and boulders, in which aquatics 

 and rock plants from the tropics might be displayed in then* natm-al and 

 wildest habits ; while the centre of the building, instead of being choked up 

 with tall shrubs and trees, is kept spaciously open ; low-growing plants only 

 being placed in the ground, as in a flower-bed, in the central compartment ; 

 while some of the finest Ipomceas and Bassiflora should oocupy the central 

 beds, trailing round the shght pillars, and forming a matted roof overhead, 

 at once to give shade and conceal the artificial nature of the edifice, the 

 side-walls being skirted next the glass by a bank filled with plants in flower, 

 like those in the central beds ; while seats of elegant design, either in stone, 

 wood, or iron, are scattered at intervals amid gi-oups of aloes, arums, and 

 other odoriferous plants in the centre. Of course such a design as Mr. 

 Humphreys has imagined would require considerable space for its develop- 

 ment, and it would thus only be available in a house of considerable dimen- 

 sions ; but some jDortions of it, — namely, the arrangement of vases and rock- 

 work, might be adopted with advantage for growing ferns and some of the 

 less delicate orchids, even in a small house. 



§ 2,— Greenhouses, Hothouses, Forcing-Pits. 



667. Sir Joseph Paxton, to whom horticultm'al science is so much indebted, 

 has invented and patented a system of hothouses at once economical, efficient, 

 and, above all, portable. These houses are both lean-to and span-roofed, and 

 require no masomy or brickwork beyond the piers necessary to support the wall- 

 plate, which is so contrived as to form at once the gutter and groove in which the 

 sashes rest, the plate being grooved so as to agree with the angle at which the 

 sashes are to be placed. The sashes average in width about 4 feet 6 inches, 

 varying in length from 8 to 16 feet; the styles and sash-bars being pro- 

 portioned to the length, inasmuch as, there being no rafters, the bars and styles 

 supply the place of both, and must, consequently, be sufficiently strong : 

 they are bolted together at the top and bottom. 



668. The ventilation, which is the subject of a patent, consists of a smaller 

 sash, nine inches wide, between each pair, and extending the whole length 

 of the sash, but divided in the centre, the upper half folding upon the 

 lower with a slope, so as to throw off the water. This narrow sash is hinged 

 to the adjoining one, and bolted to the other by a spring when closed. 

 These ventilating- sashes may cither be worked by an ii'on rod and pinion or 

 by the hand. 



669. The portability of these houses is a great recommendation, where a 

 tenant is building a house on ground of which he has only a short tenure, 

 inasmuch as they can be entirely removed in a few hours, without causing any 

 dilapidation or interfei-ing with the rights of landlords. 



670. The purposes for which these structui'es are adapted will bo better 



