68 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



twice as much. A green-house of this kind, 25 feet long 

 by 11 wide, should not cost more than $100 complete, 

 if plainly built ; that is, without heating. Heating is a 

 difficult matter in green-houses so attached to dwellings, 

 unless in casos where there is a surplus heat at night from 

 furnaces or stoves in the rooms adjoining. In such cases, 

 the windows or doors, if low enough, could be opened, 

 and enough heat be supplied from the rooms of the dwell- 

 ing ; or, better yet, if it were so arranged that a register 

 from the furnace opened into the floor of the green-house. 

 But when this supply of artificial heat can not l>e ob- 

 tained, the green-house as it is will be sufficient to protect 

 plants against any frost that is likely to occur in this lati- 

 tude after April 1st, particularly if light wooden shutters 

 are put over the lower tier of sashes. I have recom- 

 mended this style of green-house to many dealers and 

 retail florists in the different States. Those who are 

 simply dealers in plants experience great difficulty and 

 lo.-s in keeping what they purchase for sale in stores or 

 dwelling-rooms; for if not sold at once, they quickly get 

 injured. But this cheap and simple style of green-house 

 not only by its appearance advertises their business as 

 dealers in flowers, but it enables them to buy from the 

 wholesale florists at an earlier season. Besides this, they 

 can purchase in March and April at less than half what 

 the same plants would cost in May, and it gives them 

 time to repot into larger pots. Placing them in the 

 green-house where they have sufficient space to grow, the 

 plants that are bought for $12 per 100 in March, with but 

 little trouble in potting, airing, and watering, will freely 

 retail for 50 cents each in May. These green-houses are 

 also economical and useful to the amateur who purchases 

 for his flower-garden in spring. Bedding-plants, as they 

 are called, can not be safely planted out in the Northern 

 States until the middle of May, and if the amateur buys 

 from the florist then, he generally pays quite double the 



