106 THE HOT-HOUSE. [JAN. 



ing heat in the parts of the house next to this single range, by over- 

 heating it in order to force through it a heat sufficient to keep the 

 entire of the house warm ; this can never protect and promote the 

 growth and health of plants so well as that gradual glow of moderate 

 warmth issuing from flues of several returns, carried under the walks 

 or other convenient places, as well as round the front and end walls, 

 either in double or single ranges, and especially under the back walk, 

 over which broad planks may be laid, resting on loose bricks, for the 

 convenience of walking during the winter season ; from these the 

 heat will be equally diffused through the whole house, and to pro- 

 duce which, half the fuel will not be necessary that must be con- 

 sumed in keeping the house warm by a single range round the front 

 and ends only. 



In the erection of stoves it will not be necessary to have the ends 

 glazed more than half the width of the house, or at most, to within 

 eighteen inches of the doors, leaving that much for piers between the 

 doors and the upright end sashes ; the remainder may be carried up 

 with brick as high as the roof lights. 



In stoves that are so long as to require two fires, each with its re- 

 spective ranges of flues, it will be proper to make a glass partition in 

 the middle, and to have two tan-pits, that there may be two different 

 degrees of heat for plants from different countries ; and were a range 

 of stoves built all in one, and divided by glass partitions at least 

 half the width of the house towards the front, it would be of great 

 advantage to the collection, because they may have different degrees 

 of heat according to their different natures, and likewise the air in 

 each division may be shifted, by sliding the glasses of the partitions, 

 or by opening the glass door which should be made between each 

 division, for the more easy passage from one to the other. 



In the warmest of these stoves or divisions, should be placed the 

 most tender exotic trees and plants. These being natives of very 

 warm countries, should be plunged in the bark-bed, and over the flues 

 may be shelves on which to place the various species of Cactuses, 

 Euphorbiums, Mesembryanthemums, and other very tender succulent 

 plants which require to be kept dry in winter. 



As in this stove are placed the plants of the hottest parts of the 

 East and West Indies, the heat should be kept up equal to that 

 marked Ananas upon the botanical thermometers, and should never 

 be suffered to be more than eight or ten degrees cooler at most, nor 

 should the spirit be raised above ten degrees higher in the thermome- 

 ter during the winter season, both which extremes will be equally in- 

 jurious to the plants. 



The roofs of some stoves are so made, that the glasses do not slide 

 either up or down, which is an evil of great magnitude; for where 

 the sun is so powerful in the months of April and May, as it is in 

 every part of the United States, the superabundance of heat col- 

 lected in the house on very hot days, cannot be discharged by the 

 doors and sliding upright sashes in front, which forces the plants into 

 an extreme state of vegetation, and renders them unfit to bear the 

 open air towards the latter end of May, when otherwise the greater 

 number of them might be brought out with safety, without receiving 



