ORCHARD-HOUSES. 13 



Sir Joseph is probably not answerable for the 

 illustration which appears in the gardening perio- 

 dicals, in which a triangular greenhouse is so 

 ingeniously filled with six trees, reminding us in- 

 voluntarily of the three degrees of comparison. 

 Supposing the trees figured to be Orange trees, 

 what a pity the artist did not give us a represen- 

 tation of the gardener sponging the leaves of one 

 of the outer plants, or clipping its shoots to pre- 

 vent them touching the glass, which they are in 

 great danger of doing. His position would appear 

 less comfortable than that of the jolly old gentle- 

 man in the middle walk, who seems so con- 

 tentedly viewing his well-proportioned trees. 



However appropriate as vineries they must be 

 most inconvenient for the growth of plants. 



A friend has just sent me a pamphlet entitled 

 " A Handbook of Vine and Fruit Culture, as 

 adapted to Sir Joseph Paxton's Patent Hot- 

 houses, by Samuel Hereman." It contains some 

 extraordinary designs of houses filled with " im- 

 possible-to-be-cultivated plants ;" it pre-supposes 

 an immense amount of ignorance and credulity 

 on the part of the public, to give a section of a 

 house formed of two eight-feet lights, placed at 



