STO 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



STO 



631 



this rise must be allowed in the placing them lower under the 

 floor, next the fire ; because the floor must be laid perfectly 

 level, otherwise it will appear unsightly. In this stove there 

 should be a stand or scaffold erected, for placing shelves 

 above each other, that the plants may be disposed so as to 

 make a handsome appearance in the house ; but these shelves 

 should be made moveable, so as to be raised or sunk, accord- 

 ing to the various heights of the plants, otherwise it will be 

 very troublesome to raise or sink every particular plant, 

 according to their heights, or every year as they advance in 

 their growth. In placing the feet of this stand, be careful 

 not to set them too near the fire, nor directly upon the top of 

 the flue, especially that end next the fire ; lest, by the constant 

 heat of the tiles, the wood should take fire. The stand 

 should be in the middle of the house, leaving a passage about 

 two feet and a half in the front, and another of the same 

 width in the back, the more conveniently to pass round the 

 plants, in order to water them, and that the air may freely 

 circulate about them. In disposing the plants, the tallest 

 should be placed behind, and the shortest in front, so that 

 there will not be occasion for more than five or six shelves in 

 height at most ; but the scaffold should be so contrived, that 

 there may be two shelves in breadth, laid upon every rise, 

 wh'enever there may be occasion for it, which will save much 

 trouble in disposing the plants. The Bark Stove. These 

 stoves have a large pit, nearly the length of the house, three 

 feet deep, and six or seven feet wide, according to the breadth 

 of the house. This pit is filled with fresh tanners' baik to 

 make a hot-bed, and in this bed the pots of the most tender 

 exotic trees and herbaceous plants are plunged. The heat 

 being moderate, the roots of the plants are always kept in 

 action, and the moisture, detained by the bark, keeps the 

 fibres of their roots in a ductile state ; while in the Dry Stove, 

 where they are placed on shelves, they are subject to dry too 

 fast, which is very injurious to the plants. The dimensions 

 of these stoves should be proportioned to the number of 

 plants intended to be preserved, or to the particular plan of 

 the owner; but there should be one fire-place for every forty 

 feet in length. Where there are two fires, it will be proper 

 to make a partition of glass in the middle, and to have two 

 tan-pits, that there may be two different degrees of heat, for 

 plants from different countries. It would be best to build 

 them all in one, only divided by glass partitions, at least the 

 half way towards the front, which will be of great advantage 

 to the plants, because they may have the air in each division 

 shifted, by sliding the glasses of the partitions, or by open- 

 ing a glass door, which should be made between each divi- 

 sion, for the readily passing from one into the other. These 

 stoves should be raised above the level of the ground, in 

 proportion to the dryness of the place, for when built in a 

 moist situation, the whole should be placed on the top of the 

 ground ; hence the brick-work in front must be raised three 

 leet above the surface, which is the depth of the bark-bed, 

 whereby none of the bark will be in danger of lying in water, 

 but if the soil be dry, the brick-work in front need not be 

 more than one foot above ground, and the pit may be sunk 

 two feet below the surface. Upon the top of this brick-work, 

 in front, must be laid the plate of timber, into which the 

 wood-work of the frame is to be mortised. This should be 

 of sound winter-felled Oak, one foot wide, six inches deep, 

 and the upright timbers in front must be placed four feet 

 asunder, or somewhat more, which is the proportion of the 

 width of the glass doors or sashes ; these should be about 

 six and a half or seven feet long, and placed upright; their 

 dimensions should be nine inches by six, of yellow Fir; but 

 from the top of these ought to come sloping glasses, reaching 

 VOL. n. 1 18. 



within three feet of the back of the stove, where a strong 

 crown-piece of timber should be placed, into which a groove 

 for the glasses to slide upon should be inserted. The sloping 

 timbers should be ten inches by nine of yellow Fir; and the 

 crown plate one foot by nine or ten inches of the same tim- 

 ber. The wall in the back part of the stove should be at 

 least thirteen inches thick, but eighteen or twenty-two inches 

 will be better, for the greater thickness there is in the back 

 wall, the more heat will be thrown to the front, whereby the 

 air of the stove will be more thoroughly warmed ; the build- 

 ing will also be the stronger, for to this back wall the flues, 

 through which the smoke is to pass, must be joined. This 

 back wall should be carried up about sixteen or twenty feet 

 high, or more, for tall stoves, that they may be of a proper 

 height to support the timbers of the back roof, which covers 

 the shed behind the stove. The roof is fastened into the 

 crown piece before mentioned, which in tall Stoves should 

 be about thirty feet above the surface of the tan-bed ; this 

 will give a sufficient declivity to the sloping glasses to carry 

 off the wet, and be of sufficient height to admit many tall 

 plants. The back roof may be slated, covered with lead, 

 or tiled, according to the fancy of the owner ; but the ap- 

 pearance of the outside of the building is better expressed 

 by the Plan, than by any written description. In the front 

 of the house, before the tan-bed, there should be a walk 

 about two feet wide, next to which the bark-pit must be 

 placed. The width of the bark-pit should be eight feet, where 

 the width of the house is fourteen. Behind the pit, a walk 

 of two feet wide should be made, to allow room to pass, 

 and water the plants. Then there will be two feet left next 

 the back wall, to erect the flues, which must be all raised 

 above the level of the bark-bed. These flues ought to be 

 one foot wide in the clear, that they may not be too soon 

 stopped with the soot, as well as that they may be easily 

 cleaned. The lower flue into which the smoke first enters 

 from the fire, should be two feet deep in the clear, and 

 covered with broad tiles a foot and half square, or one foot 

 by a foot and half long, that they may be wide enough to 

 extend over the wall in front of the flues, and to take suffi- 

 cient hold of the back wall : over this the second flue must 

 be returned back again. It may be twenty inches deep, and 

 covered on the top, as before ; and so in like manner the flues 

 may be returned over each other six or eight times, that the 

 heat may be spent before the smoke passes off. The thick- 

 ness of the wall, in front of these flues, need not be more than 

 four inches, or three will do very well, if they be carefully 

 carried up, but it must be well jointed with mortar, and 

 pargeted on the rnside, to prevent the smoke from getting 

 into the house. The outside should be faced with mortar, 

 and covered with a coarse cloth, to keep the mortar from 

 cracking, as is practised in setting up coppers. If this be 

 ca-refully done, there will be no danger of the smoke entering 

 the house, which cannot be too carefully guarded against; 

 for there is nothing more injurious to plants than smoke, 

 which will cause them to drop their leaves, and, if not stop- 

 ped, will soon destroy them. The fire-place must be made 

 at the end when there is only one; but where the length of 

 the stove requires two, place them at each end of the shed, 

 which must be made the length of the stove, that the fires 

 and the back of the flues may not suffer from the outer air ; 

 for it will be impossible to make the fire burn equally, where 

 the wind has full ingress to it, and it will be troublesome 

 to attend it in wet weather, if exposed to rain. The furnace 

 must be adapted to the kind of fuel to be used; but as turf 

 is the best kind of firing, because it lasts longer than any 

 other, the furnace here described is that suited for turf only. 

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