632 



STO 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



STO 



The whole of this furnace should be erected within the house, 

 which will be a great addition to the heat; and the front wall, 

 on the outside of the fire-place next the shed, should be three 

 bricks thick, to prevent the heat from escaping in that direc- 

 tion. The door of the furnace, at which fuel is introduced, 

 should be small, and placed near the upper part, shutting 

 as closely as possible. The furnace must be twenty inches 

 deep, and sixteen square at bottom, but may be sloped off on 

 every side, so as to be two feet square at the top ; and under 

 this furnace should be a place for the ashes to fall into, which 

 should be about a foot deep, and as wide at the bottom of 

 the furnace; this should also have an iron door to shut as 

 close us possible, but just over the ash-hole, above the bars 

 which support the fuel, should be a square hole, about four 

 or six inches wide, to let in air to make the fire burn ; this 

 must also have an iron frame, and a door to shut close when 

 the fire is perfectly lighted ; which will make the fuel last 

 longer, and moderate the heat. The top of this furnace 

 should be nearly equal to the top of the bark-bed, that the 

 lowest flue may be above the fire, to allow a greater draught 

 for the smoke. The furnace should be arched over with 

 bricks. The best are those called Windsor bricks, laid in 

 loam of the same kind as that whereof they have been made, 

 which, when burnt by the fire, will cement the whole together, 

 and become like one brick. Take care that the fire be not 

 placed too near the bark-bed, for then the heat of the fire 

 will by its long continuance dry the bark, and not only 

 destroy its virtue, but render it liable to take fire. Hence 

 it will be the best method to continue a hollow between the 

 brick-work of the fire and that of the pit, about four or five 

 inches wide, which will effectually prevent any damage arising 

 from the heat of the fire ; but there ought to be no wood- 

 work near the flues or fire-place, which becoming very dry, 

 must be very liable to take fire. The entrance into this 

 stove should be either from a Green-house, the Dry Stove, or 

 else through the shed, where the fire is made, because in cold 

 weather the front glasses must not be opened. The inside 

 of the house should be clean, and white-washed, because the 

 whiter the back part of the house is, the better it will reflect 

 the light, which is of great consequence to plants, especially 

 in winter, when the stove is obliged to be shut up close. 

 Over the top sliding-glasses there should be either wooden 

 shutters, or tarpaulins, fixed in frames, to cover them in bad 

 weather, to prevent the wet from getting through the glasses, 

 and to secure them from being broken by storms of hail ; 

 and these outer coverings will be very serviceable to keep 

 out the frost; and if, in very severe cold, there be a tarpaulin 

 hung before the upright glasses in the front, it will be of great 

 service to the stove, for then much less fire will preserve a 

 heat in the house. In the warmest division, the most tender 

 exotic trees and plants must be placed. Being natives of 

 warm countries, they r&quire to be plunged into the bark-bed, 

 and over the flues there may be shelves made to set the Melon 

 Thistle, the tender sorts of Cereus and Euphorbium, with 

 other very tender succulent plants, which require to be kppt 

 dry in winter. As in this stove are placed tho plants of the 

 hottest parts of the East and West Indies, tho heat should 

 be kept up equal to that marked Anana upon the botanical 

 thermometers, and should never be more than eight or ten 

 degrees cooler at most. Nor should the spirit be raised more 

 than ton degrees higher during the winter, as both extremes 

 are equally injurious. In order to judge more exactly of the 

 temper of the air in the stove, hang the thermometer at a 

 good distance from the fire, and take care that the tube be 

 screened from the sun, for if the sun-beams rest only one hour 

 upon the ball of the thermometer, it will raise the liquor 



considerably above the real temperature of the stove. -In 

 the management of plants placed in the bark-bed, particular 

 regard must be had to the temper of the bark, and the air 

 of the house, that neither becomes too intensely hot. The 

 plants will require frequent watering, except in cold weather, 

 when it would be very injurious; but. the reader will find 

 particular instructions upon this head under the descriptions 

 of the plants themselves. It has been already observed, that 

 in the erection of these stoves, it will be of great service to 

 join them all together, with only one glass partition between 

 them ; and wherever several of these stoves and green-houses 

 are required in one garden, it will be very proper to have the 

 green-house in the middle, and the stoves at each end, either 

 placed obliquely or carried on in one straight front. By this 

 con:rivance in the structure of these houses, a person may 

 pass from the one to the other of them without going into 

 the open air; which, besides the pleasure to the owner, is 

 also of great use, because there will be no occasion to make 

 a back way into each of them, which must otherwise be done, 

 because the front glasses of the stove could not be opened in 

 cold weather without greatly injuring the plants. But besides 

 the stoves here described, and the green-house, it will be 

 very necessary to have a glass-case or two, wherever there 

 may be great collections of plants. These may be built 

 exactly in the manner described for the stoves, with upright 

 glasses in front, and sloping glasses over the top of them, 

 which should run within four feet of the back of the house. 

 The height, depth, and other dimensions, should be conform- 

 able to that of the stoves, which will make a regularity in 

 that of the building. These may be placed at the end of the 

 range on each hand beyond the stoves ; and if there be a flue 

 carried along round each of these, with an oven to make a 

 fire in very cold weather, it will save a great deal of labour, 

 and keep the frost out in the severest winters. The upper 

 glasses of these houses should either have shutters of wood, 

 or tarpaulins in frames to cover them in frosty weather; and 

 if there be a contrivance to cover the upright glasses in frost, 

 either with mats, shutters, or tarpaulins, it will be of great 

 use in winter; otherwise the flue must be used when the frost 

 comes on, but that should be done only upon extraordinary 

 occasions, because the design of these erections is to defend 

 such plants as do not require additional warmth, but merely 

 a protection from frost, and a larger share of air than can be 

 conveniently admitted into a green-house. In one of these 

 houses, for instance, may be placed all sorts of Aloes, Me- 

 sembryanthemum, African Sedum, Cotyledon, and succulent 

 plants from the Cape of Good Hope. In the other, the dif- 

 ferent kinds of Arctotis, Osteospermum, Royena, Lotus, and 

 woody or herbaceous plants from the same countries or lati- 

 tudes. Thus, by contriving the green-house in the middle, 

 and one stove and a glass-case at each end, there will be a 

 conveniency to keep plants from all the different parts of the 

 world, such particularly as will only live in the temperature 

 of their native soil. Whoever desires to have a large collec- 

 tion of plants from different countries, must contrive to have 

 two or three of these stoves, and adapt their heat to the 

 climates from whence the plants placed in them have been 

 brought. As, however, most of the English stoves are 

 designed for the culture of Ananas only, we shall subjoin 

 Mr. Miller's description of two sorts of stoves, which are of 

 the least expense erecting ; so that whoever wishes to erect 

 a stove for that purpose, may be able to adapt it to the num- 

 ber of fruit proposed to be annually raised. The first sort 

 of stove, is that which is designed for the plants which pro- 

 duce tho fruits the same year; for as they do not generally 

 fruit till the second year, owing to their being taken from 





