INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS. .91 



Botanic Society's Garden, in the Eegent's Park, by Mr. Mar- 

 nock, and which is, perhaps, one of the best adapted structures 

 for the growth of plants in England, and is decidedly superior 

 to the many monster plant-houses lately erected in that country. 

 We have compared this structure with the large houses at 

 Chatsworth, Kew, Sion House, and other places, and, whether 

 in respect to convenience and comfort, general appearance or 

 adaptability, we consider it in every way preferable to any other 

 structure of the kind we have seen. This splendid winter- 

 garden — for its great size justly entitles it to this name — 

 contains collections of different degrees of hardiness, and em- 

 braces climates suitable to each. Its walks are gravelled, like a 

 flower-garden, winding through, amongst the various groups of 

 plants; sometimes overhung with the pendulous branches of 

 flowering plants of great size and beauty, and sometimes wind- 

 ing beneath arches and arbors of climbers in wild profusion. 

 Here you climb over rocks, covered with characteristic plants, 

 and there you descend into the humid recesses of orchids and 

 aquatics. This house has not the domed and lofty character of 

 siome other structures of the kind, which is at once a prominent 

 feature and a prominent fault in their construction ; it consists 

 of several spans, supported on light iron columns, the centre one 

 being somewhat higher than the others ; and, though having 

 little pretensions to what is generally called architectural dis- 

 play, yet its commanding position and its magnitude strike the 

 observer with a feeling of admiration, which is only surpassed 

 by its internal arrangements. 



The general system of building conservatories in a recess 

 of the mansion is entirely subversive of this method of internal 

 arrangement, because of their total inadaptability for this pur- 

 pose. It must not be supposed, however, that there is any abso- 

 lute reason for detaching the conservatory from the mansion, if 

 it be otherwise desired ; but it ought to be there as a positive 

 part of the building, not a tributary attachm.ent to fill up a cor- 

 ner. That these kinds of structures for plants are being rapidly 

 improved, is evident, and this, indeed, must be the case, since 

 the improvement here spoken of springs from necessity. The 

 attachment of a green-house to a mansion appears to us in a' 



