STOVE CLIMBERS 29 



were half a century or less ago, and there is no getting 

 away from the fact that a tropical plant house is often so 

 hot and moist that the plants in it can only be inspected 

 in more or less discomfort. Nevertheless there are still 

 among us horticulturists who love to cultivate plants from 

 tropical countries, many of which are climbers of great 

 beauty and charm. It would not be difficult to build a 

 glass house specially adapted for the cultivation of tropical 

 climbers. Such a house should be constructed so as to 

 admit the maximum amount of sunshine, the borders 

 heated from below, and the air warmed by means of hot 

 water pipes fixed near the roof. 



A serious defect in all our artificially heated plant 

 houses is that the heat comes from below, and in tropical 

 houses in winter this is injurious to plants. One of the 

 most striking examples of what is meant is the Palm House 

 at Kew, the roof of which is iron and glass and the floor 

 open-iron grating, below which are many rows of hot water 

 pipes. To maintain the required temperature in winter 

 these pipes have to be kept hot, and the effect of the 

 heated dry air rising from below and impinging against 

 the delicate under surface of the leaves is harmful to most 

 plants. Climbers, which are necessarily near the roof, do 

 not suffer so much as the plants lower down, but even they 

 would be happier if the conditions with respect to temper- 

 ature were better. 



A list of climbers suitable for a tropical house might 

 include some of the plants mentioned in the list for a 

 greenhouse. Many plants are fairly adaptive with respect 

 to temperature. Vitis vinifera, for example, which may be 

 grown in the open air in England, and is also quite happy 

 under ultratropical treatment ; the common Passion flower 



