812 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



single fire heats this house ; the flue goes under the floor round the front and ends, 

 rises and continues above the floor along the back wall, and terminates in a chimney in 

 the centre. Over the stock-hole is placed a cistern, which is supplied from the roof, and 

 occasionally from a pump adjoining, with water, which is conveyed into the green-house 

 by a lead pipe." {Plans for Green-houses, &c. p. 11.) 



6165. The most suitable descriptioji of green-house or conservatory for the fioicer- 

 garden is that with span roof {fig. 568.), because such a house has no visible 

 " hinder parts," back sheds, stock-holes, or other points of ugliness, with which it is 

 difficult to avoid associating all the shed, or lean-to forms of glazed buildings 

 with back walls. Several elegant houses of this description have been erected by Messrs. 

 Bailey. An example occurs in the Regent's Park, at the villa of W. H. Cooper, 

 Esq. ; another at Walthamstowe, in the grounds of P. Kendal, Esq. ; and several more 

 are mentioned in the table already given (1587.), or are in course of erection. 



6166. Iti the interior of the green-house the principal object demanding attention is the 

 stage, or platform for the plants. In a double-roofed house, surrounded by a path, the 

 stage generally consists of shelves, rising from the path to the middle of the bouse {fig. 

 567. a and b) ; but in a house with a single roof {fig. 569.) it generally rises from the 

 front path to the back, and in both cases the slope of the 

 stage is generally the same or somewhat less than the slope 

 of the roof. In the green-houses destined for very large 

 or tall-growing plants, as camellias, and many of the New 

 Holland plants, no stage is requisite ; and in such as are 

 destined for small plants, as heaths and geraniums, the 

 first step of the stage, when there is a path between it and 

 the front glass, should be raised at least two feet and a 

 half high, and it may then be continued parallel to the 

 roof. The object of this arrangement is to bring the 

 plants near the glass, so as they may obtain the benefit of the light in a state as little de- 

 composed as possible. Flues in green-houses are frequently carried above ground, 

 which is inelegant and too much in the style of the common forcing-house. They may 

 in almost every case be conducted under the paths or stage, and by keeping them de- 

 tached so as air may circulate round them, as much heat will be given out as by the 

 common mode. In general one fire will be sufficient to warm from 4000 to 5000 cubic 

 feet of air, of the temperature requisite for green-house plants, (see 1662.) In some cases 

 trellis-rods are placed at regular distances under the roofs of green-houses, for the pur- 

 pose of training vines ; but this practice is incompatible with a high degree of culture 

 and beauty in the green-house plants, on account of the light it excludes ; besides, it 

 interferes with character. If any creepers or climbers are to be trained under the roofs, 

 they should be of the ornamental kind; but it is generally best to train them to 

 upright rods at the back part of the house, or rods forming intersecting arches over 

 the back paths, or against the back wall ; for by either of these modes they exclude less 

 light, better display their foliage and flowers, and less recal the idea of the forcing- 

 house. 



6167. Abercrombk and Nicol give descriptions of green-houses, such as they approve ; the former is 

 rather indefinite in his remarks ; but the latter has given the best instructions that have yet appeared, as 

 far as respects the old forms and mode of treating and ventilating. 



6168. According to Abercrombie, " The green-house maybe made a very ornamental object as a structure. 

 The front of the building should stand directly to the south, and the ends have an open aspect to the east 

 and west. The extent of the green-house may vary, according to the largeness of the collection to be cul- 

 tivated : when most contracted it should considerably exceed the breadth and height, in order to have 

 handsome proportions. As to the breadth, were it more than twenty feet, those plants most remote from 

 the windows would be troublesome to manage, as they must stand on very high stages to be reached by the 

 sun ; between twelve and twenty feet will be found the most commodious latitude. The front, including 

 a low parapet wall and a row of windows, or upright glasses, may be eight or ten feet high, measured from 

 the interior floor. It will be proper to lay the floor at least twelve inches above the level of the ground, 

 and in damp situations two feet. The back is the only part at which an entire wall should be carried up 

 to the roof; the precise height of this wall depends upon that of the glass front and the breadth of the 

 house ; the proportions of these three must be so accommodated as to give the proper slope to the roof." 

 {Fract. Gard.) 



6169. According to Nicol, " In the construction of green-houses, fancy may be indulged, and a greater 

 scope may be allowed to taste, than in the construction of forcing-houses. These are generally confined 

 to one object, the production of certain fruits in perfection ; which renders the observance of forms and 

 dimensions in their construction more necessary than in that of the green-house, where a variety of plants 

 of different habits are to be cultivated. Nevertheless, in order that these plants may generally thrive, 

 there are certain rules to be observed, and errors to be guarded against, which I shall briefly point out. 

 Green-houses with upright fronts, and with perpendicular lights only, whether the columns that separate 

 them be of wood or of masonry, are the most objectionable ; as the plants in such are always drawn up 

 weak, and are distorted by continually stretching towards the light. Neither do they enjoy the genial 

 effects of the sun, except in the winter months, when his rays, though feeble, strike horizontally on the 

 windows, and for a few hours in the middle of the day perhaps, shine on the low plants, and those placed 

 most forward. If such houses be very wide, they are the most objectionable on that account ; as, in that 

 case, the plants placed near to the back of the stage are never visited by the rays of the sun, and enjoy but 

 little light to what they may require. But such green-houses may be, and indeed have been, much im- 

 proved, by taking off their leaden or slated roofs, and by substituting roofs consisting of wooden framing 

 and glass, for the admission of sunshine and perpendicular light. But still they are so far defective, as 

 that, by their great height, the plants are much more drawn than they ought to be, or would be, in a 



