THE CONSERVATORY. 123 



perfectly light ; and if we determine to have the pipes above 

 ground, they must be close to the twelve or eighteen inches 

 of brick-work which forms the base under the glass. The 

 two four-inch pipes, one above another, will just occupy the 

 space of the brick- work ; and if it be desirable to have them, 

 let there be a back made to the border as high as the pipes, 

 and an open iron shelf upon it, so that a chamber will be 

 formed, and the circulation of air will be increased, if from 

 the bottom of the chamber there be openings here and there 

 conveyed under the border to gratings in the path. We have 

 in all cases preferred the conical boiler, and we do in this ; 

 but as there is frequently a difhculty in finding a place for the 

 firing without being an eyesore to the conservatory, it may be 

 necessary to carry the pipes some distance under ground. In 

 this case make a trough under ground to hold the pipes, and 

 fill it up all round the pipes with bruised or pounded pum- 

 mice-stone (a complete non-conductor of heat), in which the 

 pipes will lose no heat, — at least, suffer no perceptible loss of 

 heat, in twenty or thii'ty yards of underground transit. 



Conservatories without Heat. — Of late, conservatories 

 have been constructed upon such plans as reduce them to 

 mere covered gardens, without any means of heating, but 

 with all the necessary neatness and closeness required to shut 

 out the external air. Such conservatories would be formed, 

 perhaps, in much the same way as others are for heating ; 

 but they are supplied with none but hardy and half-hardy 

 plants. With great care and attention to the shutting-up in 

 time, and not opening till the temperature of the external 

 atmosphere has been raised a little, these conservatories are 

 kept well furnished Avith camelHas, hoveas, azaleas, many kinds 

 of heaths, and others that may be called hardy greenhouse- 

 plants. Numerous climbing plants mil even stand all winter ; 

 but, with the same management that we have already de- 

 scribed, a good deal may be done with plants just got ready 

 to flower, and brought into the conservatory to bloom. The 

 study, however, of a conservatory without heat is peculiar. 

 There is abimdance of very hardy and very early things — 

 bulbs in particular — which only require absence of actual 

 frost to bring them exceedingly early ; and such as these will 

 give us flowers at Christmas, after a mild autumn. There is 

 no difficulty, then, in relying more on these than on any 

 kind of forcing for spring flowers. The great object is to 



