THE PIOME FLORIST. 



2 3 



Plans and Approximate Cost. Although con- 

 servatories that are erected in connection with the home are 

 usually built in costly style, and to serve an ornamental purpose 

 in an architectural sense, I would by no means have it 

 inferred that a good one cannot be erected for quite 

 a small sum of money. I can call to mind structures of 

 this kind, on private places, that have cost various figures, from 

 $2,000 or $3,000 each, down to $100 and less. One very 

 simple structure, which is heated by an ordinary base-burn- 

 ing coal stove, and in which, at any time, can be seen a 

 _ fine growth of plants, hanging baskets and flowers, has pleased 

 me so much that I have had an engraving made of the ground 



Fig. 



D 



26. End View of a Cheap p i an (Fig. 27). The building is ten feet by twelve feet, and is 

 Conservatory. seven feet to the rafters at the lower end it being a lean-to 



against the dwelling. The beds or benches are two and a half 

 feet high, and nearly two feet wide. On the floor at the sides 

 and ends of the aquarium, are placed tall plants, such as the 

 side benches will not accommodate. In case an aquarium 

 were not wanted, a plant bench might be built up a foot or 

 more from the floor in its stead. The sides of the house from 

 the benches upward are of glass, and the ventilators are fixed 

 in the roof. The rafters support a number of fine growing 

 hanging baskets and altogether the house is quite complete, 

 and cost the owner, perhaps, inside of $60. 



The large view shown of a conservatory, above Fig. 25, 

 represents a house, size sixteen by twenty-four feet, the cost of 

 which would be $700 and upwards, if heated in the most 



Fig. 27. A Ground Plan. 

 A represents the coal stove ; B, a 



approved style, with hot water boiler, and one hundred and ^creen placed at a height allowing the 

 fifty to two hundred feet of four-inch cast iron pipe. The ^ i^-^acquaVium^or plam^blnch- 

 same sized house might, however, be built in plain, durable L), plant 'bench ; E, water barrel of 

 style, similar to Fig. 26, for about half that figure and be pre- sink ; F, entrance from dwelling, 

 cisely as valuable for plant growing, while by employing another means of heating, which is 

 very extensively in use by florists, being much cheaper, namely, the brick furnace and flue, the 

 cost might again be lessened $150, which would bring the entire cost down to $200, and per- 

 haps even less, for quite a large-sized house. By building of smaller dimensions than sixteen 

 by twenty-four feet the cost would be proportionately less. In a house like that represented in 

 Fig. 25, the ventilators for admitting fresh air consist of the side sashes, of the raised portion of 

 the roof ; these are hung by hinges above, and are worked by means of pulleys or rods from the 

 interior. The roof of Fig. 26 is built more simple, and consists of sashes, which reach from the 

 plate board to the ridge piece. Every alternate sash serves the purpose of a ventilator, by being 

 hinged on the plate or gutter board, and is raised or lowered by mean of a light iron bar eight- 

 een inches long, with holes in, attached to the top of the sash, and which is secured to a nail 

 in the ridge piece. Fig. 28 represents the cross section of this house, showing the internal 

 arrangement of the beds and walks, and also the brick flues for heating, which are under the 

 side beds. The walks should be two and a half to three feet wide, and extend from the dwell- 

 ing entrance to the outside door on each side of the middle bed. A shows a cross section of 

 bed in a house, heated by two four-inch hot water pipes. The brick furnace or the hot water 

 boiler for heating, may be placed to be fed with fuel, from the basement of the dwelling. 



In heating with a hot water boiler and pipes the heat is imparted to the atmosphere inside 

 the structure by laying the pipes from the boiler in one continuous line throughout the building, 

 under the beds, and returning to the boiler again. The smoke from the boiler may be con- 

 ducted to the chimney of the dwelling. Through these pipes the water circulates, continually 

 flowing from and returning into the boiler while the latter is heated. It becomes necessary to 

 turn the course of the pipes at the corners, and at the extreme end by means of elbows, but this 

 does not materially retard the circulation. With furnace and flue heating it is different; here the 



heat is distributed directly from the latter, which is built 

 to pass nearly around the house, under the side beds, with 

 a gradual ascent the entire distance, to give draft, opening 

 into a chimney built at the side of the conservatory near 

 the house end. At the outside door it will be necessary to 

 cover the pipes or flue with a low platform raised six or 

 more inches above them. The sides and ends of a con- 

 servatory, up to the glass, should be built by boarding 

 against the studs with matched flooring, the tongue side 

 up, both inside and outside; by lining the outside with 

 tarred building felt or boards against the studs, it will be 

 warmer. After the wood work is finished it should receive 

 several coats of paint, white being the color generally 

 Fig. 28. preferred. 



