no 



THE VILLA GARDENER. 

 49 



entrance-hall, and b the principal living-room. Underneath the green-house 

 there is a vault, in which is placed the furnace ; and from a boiler over it hot 

 water pipes are conducted up into the green-house, where they are concealed 

 behind the sLelves, or stage, on which the pots stand. In the vault, various 

 articles which require little or no light may be forced, as already mentioned. 

 The communication between the green-honse (c) and the living-room (b) is 

 by a glass door, the view through which, from the room, is along the front of 

 the stage, and, consequently, brings into perspective all the finest plants. 

 Plans of green-houses will be given hereafter^ 



177. Pits, frames, and the reserve ground. — At the lower end of the 

 garden, a space is shown, walled off, in which pines and melons may be 

 grown in pits, either heated by dung or by hot water ; and here, also, cucum- 

 bers, and roses and other flowers, and rhubarb and other culinary articles, 

 may be forced at pleasure. One fire-place and boiler, centrally placed, will, 

 with ease, heat all these pits and frames, even if they were of three or four 

 times the extent we have supposed them to be. Plans for such pits will be 

 given hereafter. In the ground plan,/*/. 49., the boiler is supposed to be 

 placed beneath the green-house (c) ; and pipes conducted from it, as indicated 

 by the dotted line, will pass through and heat the vinery (d), the general 

 forcing- house, or stove (e), the small pit (h), the propagating box (^r), and 

 the pine pit (/). There is a place for compost at i, and a potting-shed at k. 

 Tlie long bed (/) in front of the houses is supposed to be in turf, or devoted 

 to exotic flowers and shrubs kept in the forcing-house and vinery in the win- 

 ti r season, and turned out dimng summer. The enclosure containing the 

 pits will a^so serve for a reserve ground for bringing forward articles proper 

 Jor decorating the green-house, and for containing soils, composts, pots, and 

 various articles. The potting-shed is used for shifting and potting in, and for 

 other operations required to be performed with house plants; and also for 

 containing the pots, tools, &c. Without an appendage of this kind, no green- 

 house can ever be made to look well for any length of time together ; for 

 some of the plants require to be removed as soon as they have left off" flower- 

 ing on account of their unsightliness ; others become too large and strag- 

 gling ; some get diseased, and others die altogether ; so that a reserve 

 ground, with a pit or frame in it, is absolutely necessary, as an hospital, to 

 renovate plants that are sickly or unsightly ; as a receptacle for such as are 

 in a dormant state ; and as a nursery to raise young ones, in order to keep up 

 a fresh supply of plants in full vigour. 



178. Forcing-hmises. — If these are required, we should continue them, as 

 indicated in fg. 49., from the end of the groeu-housc towards the reserve 

 gro\uid, as sliown at d and e; and, if this were done, the same fire which 

 heated the green-house, might, as already mentioned, heat the forcing-houses 



