ITS ADVANTAGES 5 



only ask the gentle coaxing of a little shelter to bless us for 

 our courtesy by stealing, with innocent guile, a few hours 

 from the "winter of our discontent." 



MODERATE COST 



" Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too," and if this 

 were true in Cowper's day, it is no less true in ours. We are 

 becoming every day more and more a nation of gardeners, and 

 no sooner does the passion for growing plants seize upon us 

 than the necessity of some shelter for them in severe weather 

 makes itself felt. The fine crop of glass-houses which has 

 sprung up over the length and breadth of the land during the 

 last half-century took its origin, probably, from the urgent 

 need of saving through the winter the bedding plants which 

 were to fill the garden beds in summer. Cheap as glass 

 and woodwork may be now, the greenhouse was formerly in 

 many cases the outcome of much cogitation and self-denial in 

 small luxuries, to end after all, not seldom, in disappointment, 

 for the heating, through ignorance of its need, had been over- 

 looked, and the very considerable expense of a boiler and pipe 

 had never entered into the calculation. Bedding plants are 

 not quite so much in vogue as of yore, but still the wail goes 

 up scarcely a week passes but it may be heard in country 

 home, in rectory, or in suburban villa " We can't save our 

 Geraniums " geranium being a generic term handy for daily 

 use " because we have no heat in the greenhouse." And it 

 is very true, for here we come to the limitations of the cold- 

 house. In it we must not expect to grow the plants which 

 require heat in winter to bring them to perfection. Pelar- 

 goniums, it is true, will exist in a temperature that never falls 

 below 35, and some will even stand a slight frost, as is seen 

 by the vigorous specimens to be seen occasionally against a 

 wall under the sheltering eaves of a cottage in Devon or 



