PLANT- HOUSES. 



481 



indicated at h h, &c. ; and, 353 



during the severest weather in 

 winter, matting may be made 

 fast to the iron tie-rods {i i in 

 Jig. 354.) of the span roof. 

 The exterior guttering is shown 

 at k. It will be observed that 

 artificial heat is by no means 

 essential to a plant cabinet, 

 and that in fact the examples 

 which have been previously 

 given are all intended to do 

 without it. Camellias and 

 vines do not require artificial 

 heat, unless it is intended to 

 force the one into flower, and 

 the other into bearing earlier 

 than their natural time ; and 

 indeed, most of the half-hardy 

 shrubs grown in conservatories 

 and planted in the ground, only 

 require protection from frost, 

 and are better without fire- 

 heat. The plants in pots, it is 

 true, generally require artificial 

 heat, but they can rarely be 

 kept alive through the winter in a plant cabinet without more labour and 

 expense than new ones can be bought for in spring; and the house-kept 

 plants generally have a shabby etiolated appearance. Indeed, even nursery- 

 men very rarely attempt to keep their old plants through the winter, and they 

 preserve their stock by cut- 

 tings; which they keep in cold 

 pits, as before described. For 

 the benefit, however, of those 

 who may wish to try to keep 

 their plants through the winter, 

 we will give a few details on 

 the usual modes by which plant 

 cabinets may be heated. 



529. A plant cabinet, ar- 

 ranged so as to conceal the mode 

 of heati7ig it. — Fig. 355. is the 

 plan, and fig. 356. a cross sec- 

 tion of a span-roofed plant 

 cabinet, with the plant stage in 

 the middle. The stage may 

 either be finished at the end 

 next the entrance with right 

 angles, as at a, or rounded ofl^, 

 as at b; and the further ex- 



2 I 



354 



k^ 



