202 THE POSSIBILITIES 



Tho greenhouse for commercial purposes is 

 essentially of British, or perhaps Scottish, 

 origin. Already in 1851, Mr. Th. Rivers had 

 published a book, The Orchard Houses and the 

 Cultivation of Fruit Trees in Pots under Glass ; 

 and we were told by Mr. D. Thomson, in the 

 Journal of Horticulture (31st January, 1889), 

 that nearly fifty years ago grapes in February 

 were sold at 25s. the pound by a grower in the 

 north of England, and that part of them was 

 sent by the buyer to Paris for Napoleon III.'s 

 table, at 50s. the pound. " Now," Mr. Thom- 

 son added, " they are sold at the tenth or twen- 

 tieth part of the above prices. Cheap coal- 

 cheap grapes ; that is the whole secret." 



Large vineries and immense establishments 

 for growing flowers under glass are of an old 

 standing in this country, and new ones are 

 continually built on a grand scale. Entire 

 fields are covered with glass at Cheshunt, at 

 Broxburn (fifty acres), at Finchley, at Bexley, 

 at Swanley, at Whetstone, and so on, to say 

 nothing of Scotland, Worthing is also a well- 

 known centre for growing grapes and tomatoes ; 

 while the greenhouses given to flowers and 

 ferns at Upper Edmonton, at Chelsea, at 

 Orpington, and so on, have a world-wide reputa- 

 tion. And the tendency is, on the one side, to 

 bring grape culture to the highest degree of 



