GREENHOUSE, SMALL. 



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GREENHOUSE, SMALL. 



useful, perhaps, to describe what was 

 once accomplished by a poor amateur who 

 liked gardening and wanted a small glass 

 structure to help him in his horticultural 

 work in a position that presented some 

 difficulty. One or two trifling deviations 

 have been made from what was actually 

 done, in order to render the sketch and 

 description more useful to amateurs 

 generally. In Fig. I AB represents, or must 

 be considered to represent, a glazed door 

 in section leading out to a lauding c, form- 

 ing the top of a flight of stone steps, D E 

 F, leading to the garden, the level of which 

 is represented by the earth -line GH. There 

 were iron railings run with lead into the 

 edges of the steps to prevent any one from 

 falling into the garden, and to act as 

 balusters to the steps. K L M shows the 

 height of a brick wall, 6 feet high in the 

 lowest part, which divides the garden from 

 an alley or narrow passage which runs 

 betweens the garden in question and that 

 of the next house, and forms a thorough- 

 fare from the street in front to another 

 behind. A greenhouse was very much 

 wished for, but to have raised it above the 

 wall would have exposed the roof to 

 damage and blocked the view from the 

 door AB. The only thing to be done to 

 get sufficient headway within the house 

 was to put the floor below the earth-line, 

 and this was done accordingly ; an excava- 

 tion, OP QR, being made below the level of 

 the earth-line shown by GH. A frame, P s, 

 was made, in which was a swing window, I, 

 hung to the top rail of the frame to hinges, 

 to open outwards. Another frame, QU, was 

 put up behind, butting against the steps 

 from which the railings were removed. On 

 these frames, before and behind, the roof, 

 us, was laid, with a ventilation at U up- 

 wards. A rail, OR, was mortised at the 

 level of the earth-line into the uprights PS, 

 QU, and short rails, Z Z, on either side be- 

 tween these uprights and the uprights v\v, 



XY, which were mortised into the rails OR, 

 US, and formed the frame for the door. A 

 nice little house, 6 feet high in front and 

 8 feet high behind, and about 5 feet 6 

 inches wide, and 7 feet from back to front, 

 was thus formed, capable of holding a 

 great many plants on the platform and 

 shelves in front and the stage of three 

 tiers behind, the positions of which are 

 indicated by drawings of flowers in pots in 

 the sketch. The openings between the 

 uprights from RQ to OP, and in front, were 

 filled in with brick-work to keep the soil 

 from falling in, and the space between OR 

 and the short rails z z on either side of the 

 door, was boarded up. the boards being 

 placed vertically, and strips with the sharp 

 edges taken off being nailed over the 

 junction of the boards to hide their meet- 

 ing, and to provide against possible shrink- 

 age. To cover in the steps and landing in 

 front of the glass door AB, uprights were 

 mortised into the top rail, u, of the frame, 

 to carry another rail on which the zinc- 

 covered roof a was sustained, the long 

 opening between these two rails being glazed 

 and fitted with a swing window as shown in 

 sketch. The glass at the top of the wall, 

 from L to K, was chipped off, and a shelf 

 put in its place, which is useful for flowers. 

 The opening at c was matchboarded, and so 

 was the wall at d between the shelf LK 

 and a seat e, which was put up across the 

 inner end of the landing, about 16 inches 

 above it. The back of the greenhouse 

 from a little above the level of the seat to 

 the top rail U, on which the roof rests, is 

 glazed, which allows a view of the interior 

 of the glasshouse to any one who is sitting 

 on the seat e t and from the passage within 

 the glass door at AB. Although everything 

 is on a small scale the house is convenient, 

 and so is the seat. A step is placed with- 

 in the house, midway between the sill of 

 the door and the floor to facilitate ingress 

 and egress. The water from the roof. 



