Book II. 



ORNAMENTAL HOT-HOUSES. 



813 



lower and better-constructed house. Houses that are open on the front only, although they have sloping 

 lights on the roof, are next to be objected to ; as the plants in such are necessarily more drawn and dis- 

 torted than if the ends were also glazed. If such be not placed among other buildings, so as that they can- 

 not be altered, they might be very much improved by pulling down the close ends, and by substituting 

 glazed lights ; which, if they be of a moderate height, would render them next best to such houses as are 

 described below." 



6170. A complete green-house, being quite detached from other buildings, should be glazed on all sides. "It 

 may be a circular, oval, hexagonal, octagonal; or with two straight sides, and circular ends, which I 

 think the best form of any ; the next best, an octagon, whose sides are not equal, but with two opposite 

 longer sides, and six shorter sides ; three and three opposite, forming, as one might say, an angular oval; 

 the ends being angular, instead of round. In either of these last-mentioned forms, the stages and plants 

 may, at least in my mind, be more tastefully arranged, than in any other. Granting either of these 

 cases, the house should be about thirty-six or forty feet long, eighteen or twenty feet wide, and ten, or 

 at most twelve feet high, above a given level line for its floor. The parapet all round to be a foot or fifteen 

 inches high, and the upright glasses placed on it, four, or four and a half feet at most. For it is of im- 

 portance, for the sake of the finer kinds of plants, and in order to have all kinds grow bushy, and flower 

 while young and small (in which state they are certainly most attractive and pleasing), to keep the roof- 

 glasses as low as possible ; just allowing sufficient head-room to the tallest person when walking in the 

 alleys. The furnace and stock-hole may be placed at either end, or at either side, as may be most con- 

 venient ; and they should be sunk under ground, and be concealed. The flue to be constructed, to run 

 parallel to, and be separated from the parapet by a three-inch cavity ; its surface being level with the top 

 of the parapet, and being crib-trellised for heaths, Botany Bay, and other rare plants. A walk thirty or 

 thirty-six inches broad, to be conducted all round next the flue ; within which to be placed the stages 

 for the more common, and the taller plants ; being raised in the middle, and falling to either side and end ; 

 corresponding with the glasses, though of course not so steep. A row of columns should be placed in the 

 centre, in order to support the ridge of the roof; to which climbing plants might be trained in various 

 forms, and might be hung in festoons from column to column at top, or otherwise, as may be dictated by 

 fancy. The front of the stage all round should be raised about eighteen or twenty inches above the walk, 

 in order to raise the whole of the plants placed on it sufficiently near to the glass ; thus forming the walk 

 into a deep alley ; the person walking in it having a narrow border of the finer and smaller plants on the 

 one hand, and a bank of the more common and larger kinds on the other ; than which, when the plants 

 are healthy and thriving, few scenes can be more pleasing. The aspect of such a house should be towards 

 the south ; that is to say, it should stretch from east to west, or as nearly so as circumstances will permit. 

 It may have an entrance on the south side, or one at either end, as shall be most convenient and suitable 

 to its connection with the walks of the shrubbery or parterre in which it is placed. If a green-house must 

 necessarily be attached to a wall or other building, it might be constructed very much as above ; with 

 this difference, having one of the ends, as it were, cut off"; in which case, it should be placed with its cir- 

 cular end south, or towards that point, and the sides pointing east and west. This I should consider as 

 the second best-constructed green-house, and in which, excepting in the above-described house, the plants 

 would enjoy the fullest share of sun and light. In either of these houses, and in plant hot-houses of every 

 description, a sufficient number of the upright and sloping sashes should be made moveable, for the ad- 

 mission and regular circulation of air in the better seasons of the year ; and ventilators should be 

 placed at regular distances all round, for the purpose of airing and ventilating them in the winter months, 

 or at times when it may not be safe to open the lights. Such a house as either of these, would form a 

 very complete receptacle for a handsome and pretty extensive collection." (Kal. and Villa Gard. Direct.) 



6171. The orangery is the green -house of the last century, the object of which was to 

 preserve large plants of exotic evergreens during winter, such as the orange tribe, 

 myrtles, sweet bays, pomegranates, and a few others. Geraniums, heaths, fuchsias, and 

 other delicate plants requiring much light, were then unknown. The orangery was 

 generally placed near to or adjoining the house, and its elevation corresponded in 

 architectural design with that of the mansion. From this last circumstance has arisen 

 a prejudice highly unfavorable to the culture of ornamental exotcis, namely, that every 

 plant-habitation attached to a mansion should be an architectural object, and consist of 

 windows between stone piers or columns, with a regular cornice and entablature. By 

 this mode of design, these buildings are rendered so gloomy as never to present a 

 vigorous vegetation, and vivid glowing colors within ; and as they are thus unfit for 

 the purpose for which they are intended, it does not appear to us, as we have already 



observed at length (1590.), that they can possibly be in good taste. Perhaps the only 

 way of reconciling the adoption of such apartments with good sense, is to consider them 



