STRUCTURES ADAPTED TO PARTICULAR PURPOSES. 79 



In some establishments it may be requisite to have a range 

 of plant-houses, or one house divided into compartments, for 

 the different kinds of plants ; thus the structure may be of a 

 highly ornamental character, as in Fig. 26, one end consisting 

 of a common green-house, for geraniums and soft-wooded plants, 

 and the other may be either a heathery, an orchidaceous, or an 

 exotic stove, for promiscuous plants ; the centre, being larger and 

 more capacious than the ends, may be an orangery, or a palm- 

 house. 



This forms an elegant range of botanic hot-houses, and being 

 of glass all round, should stand in the middle of a large pleasure- 

 ground, or shrubbery. The smoke of the furnaces, being con- 

 ducted into a subterraneous canal, is carried to a distance, and 

 emitted by means of a shaft having the appearance of an orna- 

 mental column, as in the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh and 

 Kew. 



By having the plant-stove in the middle of the other houses, 

 a considerable advantage is gained by the protection afforded in 

 winter, when the structure requires to be kept at a high temper- 

 ature by artificial means ; and as both of the adjoining houses 

 will also be warmed in severe weather, the centre one, though 

 larger, will be maintained at the required temperature with a 

 heating apparatus no larger than the others. 



From the curved disposition of the centre house, this range 

 has a peculiarly pleasing effect, when viewed from a horizontal 

 point of view somewhat distant. The proportions of this struc- 

 ture are excellent ; and it would, undoubtedly, form a splendid 

 ornament in the grounds of a gentleman's country-seat. 



One of the leading errors in the erection of large plant-houses, 

 is in the unreasonable height to which their roofs are carried, and 

 which in the case of palm-houses may be defended as necessary ; 

 but in the case of conservatories, there is no tenable justification 

 of such a course, except the house is intended to be the object 

 of admiration, instead of the plants that are grown in it ; and 

 if fitness for the end in view be expressive of beauty, then, after 

 all, these architectural temples must decidedly fail in producing 

 that effect upon the mind, that the plain finished, but fitly and 

 efficiently designed structure never fails to produce. But the 



