4 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



then, consider chiefly the advantages and disadvantages, or 

 rather limitations, of the unheated greenhouse for the practical 

 gardener. 



HEALTHFULNESS 



There are hundreds of delicate people who dare not venture 

 to stand about out of doors on a chill autumn or winter's day 

 to superintend garden operations who yet, of all recreations, 

 best enjoy the tending and environment of plants. The 

 relaxing heat of a stove is equally insupportable for any length 

 of time, and abrupt transitions from the moist warmth, even 

 of an intermediate house, into the freezing outer air, or a sudden 

 grappling with a keen easterly blast, is more than even the 

 strongest can stand without risk. It is no small boon, then, 

 on a dreary winter's day to have a place of shelter, neither too 

 cold nor too hot, and a possible occupation where an hour or 

 two may be safely spent in the company of the plants we love. 

 It is a melancholy fact that the glass-house, seen from outside 

 as a garden adjunct, is not itself, in an artistic sense, a thing 

 of beauty. It is even worse than a mere negative, and some- 

 times becomes a positive eyesore. All the more reason, 

 therefore, that the inner aspect should atone for the outer, 

 that when we enter it we may be tempted by a genial atmo- 

 sphere to linger long to enjoy the loveliness of leaf and flower, 

 without a vague dread of an evil genius of bronchitis or rheu- 

 matism hovering about us with shadowing wing. If we have 

 the true gardening spirit there will always be some work to do, 

 some new interest to discover. Outside, the rain may patter 

 on the glass or the bare boughs toss in the whistling wind, 

 and only the pale Hellebore or perhaps a belated China Rose 

 ventures to brave the inclement season before the Snowdrops 

 come; but within, while we run no risks, we may have 

 greenery and tender spring tints and scents of early Hyacinth 

 and Iris, of Violet and Crocus, and a host of flowers which 



