CONSERVATORIES, GREENHOUSES, VINERIES AND FRUIT HOUSES. 



usually about eighteen inches long by nine inches deep, fitted with a hinged lid or shutter 

 which can be partly or widely opened according to the amount of fresh air desired. In 

 the forcing house (111. No. 287) even this arrangement is not possible. 



Besides these main distinctions in the design of the three chief forms of glasshouses, Internal 

 there are sundry others, which are adapted by their internal fittings to various fittings. 

 uses. In the case of vineries, the front wall of the substructure is very often 

 built in the form of arches just below the ground level and resting on piers so that 

 the roots of the vines may have room to grow outwards as well as inwards, as shown 

 on illustrations Nos. 282 and 284. Many gardeners object to this arrangement on the 

 score that it is a wrong principle which entails having part of the roots of the same 

 plant growing in a hot house and part in the open, but they forget that the transition 

 from hot to cold in a thick bank of soil and compost will be very gradual, and may 

 in fact be almost prevented by arranging heating pipes at the bottom of the bed, as 

 shown in the sections just referred to. 



The vines themselves are trained over wires strained parallel to the under side of 

 the roof and about nine inches from it. These wires are sometimes placed so as to run from 

 the apex to the eaves and sometimes horizontally. The latter is far the best way as 

 it allows each vine to be tied to a number of them so that, in case one breaks, the 

 vine is held by the others while it is replaced. 



The peach house is fitted with a wire trellis with galvanized iron framing, which 

 is usually curved, as shown by the double line on illustration No. 283, and rests on brick 

 pillars passing through the soil bed inside the house. 



A section through a stove house is given in illustration No! 287, which shows the 

 arrangement of pipes under the bed which is contained in a kind of trough with brick 

 sides and a slate bottom. 



Other houses usually require staging, which may be of slate, wood or iron. Iron Staging. 

 staging is formed by placing narrow corrugated iron on an L-iron framing, which 

 is supported on iron legs, of which the neatest kind which the Author has yet seen is 

 that shown in illustration No. 288. The corrugated iron used has narrow corrugations 

 and is a very neat material, not to be confounded with that of which cheap buildings are 



constructed. It is usually covered 

 chippings, which, however, do not look 

 Slate staging is much the same 

 corrugated iron. For most purposes 

 as it tends to counteract the effect of 

 remaining form of staging, and pro- 

 of wood battens about three inches 

 apart, on a wooden framework and 

 by two inches material. It is not 

 ceding forms, but is a little cheaper 

 people. It lends itself particularly to 



FIG. 2 



with fine, even pebbles, or by spar 

 so well. 



thing with slates used instead of the 

 this makes the best possible staging 

 sudden changes of temperature. The 

 bably the most usual of all, is formed 

 broad and one inch thick and an inch 

 supports made out of three inches 

 practically so good as the two pre- 

 and its appearance is preferred by some 



the arrangement of plants in tiers in 

 the centre of a plant house or conservatory, or against the back wall of a lean-to 

 house. It can also be more easily constructed so as to be removable, in order to 

 allow chrysanthemums or other large plants to be displayed on the floor. 



The height of staging placed against the front wall of a glasshouse should preferably 

 not exceed twenty-seven inches, and the plants will look better from the outside of the 

 house if its surface is nine inches below the bottom edge of the glass, so that the pots 

 are hidden. Staging in the middle of a plant house or conservatory is often used for 

 tree ferns, palms, camellias, or large plants growing in heavy pots or tubs, and must 

 therefore be strong ; a good staging for such plants is formed of sawn flag tabling 

 resting on stone or brick piers. 



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