468 



THE VILLA GARDENER. 

 333 



Fig. 333, shows a moveable glass-case, applied to only part of a wall to 

 protect some particular plants. 



512. In all country villas and mansions it is necessary to raise a great many 

 young plants of pelangoniums, calceolarias, verbenas, &c., every year, to 

 supply the place of those which are bedded out, and left in the open ground 

 till they are killed by the frost. The most common mode of raising these 

 plants, is to make an immense number of cuttings in the latter end of August, 

 and the beginning of September, and to plant them in what are called store- 

 pots, or pans, sometimes as many as fifty or sixty in a pot. These pots are 

 then placed in what are called cold pits, because no heating apparatus is 

 required for them, where they are kept till spring. It is, therefore, evident 

 that these cold pits are the most useful of all structures to the flower-gar- 

 dener ; particularly as the same wooden frames and glasses which have served 

 for the cold pits during winter may, if not fixed with mortar on the walls of 

 the pit, serve, after the store-pots are taken out of them in spring, as frames 

 for hotbeds. 



513. A cold pit is formedi 23^ 

 of brickwork, about 3ft. 

 high behind, and 2 ft. in 

 front. The foundation walls 

 are 9 in. thick, and those 

 above ground 4 in. thick. 

 The section of a pit of 

 these dimensions, is shown 

 in fig. 334. On the brick- 

 work rests a frame of wood, 

 divided into compartments, 

 so as to hold one sash or 

 light in each, and grooved 



so as to allow the sashes to slide up and down. The pit may have any number 

 of lights required, but the usual number is four, as shown in fig. 335. One 

 of the lights is shown in fig. 336., which is glazed with panes of glass 2 ft. 6 in. 

 long, by 9 in. wide. Each light has a handle at the upper end, to open or shut 

 it when required. Sometimes the walls of the pit are made hollow ; as it is 

 found that the stratum of air enclosed between the two walls, is more effica- 



