COMBINED CELLAR AND GREENHOUSE. 187 



no season go below forty degrees, and be sufficient to 

 keep the upper or greenhouse portion of the structure 

 above the freezing point in the coldest weather. This 

 it did completely when the ghiss was covered at night 

 with shutters ; and the plants with which it was filled, 

 01 a kind requiring a low temperature, kept in better 

 health than if they had been grown in a greenhouse 

 havinsr fire heat. 



Under favorable circumstances such a structure might 

 be made of great utility, and at a trifling cost ; for as it 

 dispenses with heating apparatus, which usually is more 

 than half of the whole cost in all greenhouses, the use 

 of a cellar and greenhouse could be had at probably less 

 than the cost of an ordinary greenhouse ; and for half- 

 hardy plants — plants that will do well in winter if kept 

 only above the freezing point — such a structure will be 

 better for many of them than any kind of greenhouse 

 heated by fire heat. All kinds of Roses, Camellias, 

 Azaleas, Zonal Geraniums, Violets, Cape Jessamines, 

 Carnations, Abutilons, Verbenas. Primulas, Stevias, and, 

 in short, all plants known as cool greenhouse plants, 

 will keep in a healthy, though nearly dormant condition, 

 during the winter months ; but they will flourish with 

 greatly increased vigor at their natural season of growth 

 and flowering as spring advances. Besides, the cellar 

 may be used for the ordinary purposes of such a place ; 

 or, if exclusively for horticultural purposes, no better 

 place can be had for keeping all deciduous hardy or half- 

 hardy plants, Hyacinths in pots to start to flower, or any 

 bulbs of similar nature. The great point to be observed 

 is, that the soil where such a structure is to be erected 

 is entirely free from water, or, if not so naturally, it 

 must be made entirely dry by draining. 



The style that I think would suit best for general pur- 

 poses would be twelve feet in width, and of any length 

 desired. The excavation should not be less than seven 



