JAN.] THE GREEN-HOUSE. 101 



in a green-house ; it will admit light, collect heat, and give health, 

 beauty, and vigor to all the plants. 



Some green-houses, for large collections of plants, have two wings 

 of smaller dimensions added to the main building, one at each end, 

 in a right line, separated sometimes from it by glass partitions and 

 sliding sashes for communication, the front almost wholly of glass, 

 and part glass roofs, as above observed ; thus, by these additional 

 wings, the green-house will consist of three divisions, whereby the 

 different qualities and temperatures of the various plants can be more 

 eligibly suited. The middle or main division may be for all the prin- 

 cipal and more hardy, woody or shrubby kinds, which require pro- 

 tection from frost only } one of the wings may be appropriated for 

 the succulent tribe, and the other for the more tender kinds that re- 

 quire occasional heat in winter, yet can live without the constant heat 

 of a stove or hot-house. 



Many green-houses, as they are commonly built, serve more for 

 ornament than use ; their situation to receive the south sun being the 

 only essential that seems to be regarded towards preserving the 

 health of the plants which they are intended to protect. It is rare 

 to find one that will keep plants in good health during the winter, 

 either by reason of their situation in moist places, their want of a 

 sufficiency of glasses to attract heat and admit a due quantity of light, 

 or of the glasses not being constructed so as to slide up and down 

 occasionally, as they ought as well to suffer the foul air to be dis- 

 charged as to admit fresh. Sometimes where a green-house has been 

 well considered in these points, all is confounded by the introduction 

 of a mettle stove and pipes, which never can be managed so as to 

 give, when necessary, that gradual and well regulated heat, which 

 will protect the plants without injuring them ; and, besides, both the 

 stove and pipes unavoidably emit in the house a quantity of smoke, 

 which seldom fails to annoy the plants. It does not unfrequently 

 happen when such a house is intrusted to the care of an ignorant or 

 negligent person, that the whole collection is destroyed in one night 

 by excessive heat, or at least rendered of very little value ; this is an 

 evil which ought to be carefully guarded against. 



For the particular method of erecting the furnace and flues, see 

 the article HoT-HousE, for this month, with which it agrees in every 

 respect, only that one range round the house and two along the back 

 wall will be sufficient; and that the flues may or may not be erected 

 close to the walls, at pleasure. 



On whatever plan the green-house is constructed, let the whole 

 inside, both ceiling, walls and flues, be neatly finished off with good 

 plaster and white-wash, and all the wood-work made with the most 

 critical exactness, of good seasoned timber, particularly the doors, 

 sashes and sash-frames the whole to be painted white and let the 

 bottom or floor be paved with large square paving tiles, or some simi- 

 lar materials. 



The floor of the green-house should be raised at least twelve inches 

 above the level of the ground, and higher in proportion as the situa- 

 tion is moist or springy for damps sometimes arise during the 

 winter months which prove very pernicious to plants. 



