20 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



pensive buildings, such as we describe in some of the 

 chapters on greenhouse structures, are beyond his means, 

 and something cheaper must be adopted. (See chapter 

 on Cheap Greenhouses). The general principle on which 

 these greenhouses are formed is in all respects the same, 

 and the beginner with limited means, instead of erecting 

 three houses, need erect only one, which should not be 

 more than fifty feet long and of a width of eleven feet in 

 the clear. The proportions of height, etc., will be found 

 in the drawing on page 77. The sides may be formed of 

 cedar or chestnut posts planked up to the required height, 

 having a lining of tarred paper between the boards. In 

 this way, at present prices, a structure of this kind, with 

 flue, benches and all complete, need not cost more than six 

 or eight dollars per running foot, or $300 or $400 for a 

 house of fifty feet. But something else will be needed 

 besides the house, and sunken pits or cold frames should 

 be erected parallel with the east side of the greenhouse 

 and connected with it. A portion, say half, of these 

 should be excavated to the depth of two feet, and used 

 as a sunken pit for Eoses, etc. ; the cold frame portion, 

 which is not sunken but made level with the soil, can be 

 used to grow the hardier sorts of flowers, as Pansics, 

 Daisies, Pinks, etc. I here again repeat that the Rose, 

 unless grown to force for winter flowers, is easily injured 

 by fire heat, which it must necessarily receive if placed in 

 the greenhouse, in which are grown a variety of plants 

 that require fire heat. 



These pits and cold frames should be covered up care- 

 fully, either with shutters or mats, during severe weather 

 in winter, and care taken that all water is thoroughly 

 drained off from them. The sunken pits and cold frames 

 of twenty-five feet each will cost, say, $100, which, to- 

 gether with the purchase of stock and coal to last through 

 the winter, would make the expenditure from June to 

 November, $600 or $700, leaving $300 or $400 for ex- 



