PROPAGATING HOUSES AND PITS. 



21 



cool pits and frames for hardier plants. In some cases they 

 may be sunk partly below the ground-level with advantage, 

 but this is scarcely necessary except in exposed or bleak 

 positions. If there is no propagating pit on the premises, one 

 of these houses makes an excellent substitute with the aid of a 

 few small one-light frames, or even a few bell-glasses or com- 

 mon hand-lights; while for growing on young fresh-rooted 

 plants they are just the thing. 



Our engraving illustrates in section one of these economical 

 structures, which, for all practical purposes, are ten times more 

 useful to the amateur who really wishes to grow or improve 

 plants than the fancy greenhouses usually attached to villa 

 and suburban residences, and in many of which a clever pro- 

 fessional gardener could not grow plants successfully. One 



Section of span-roof ed Propagating and Hybridising House. 



H- 



of these little structures thirty or forty feet long is amply 

 sufficient for the requirements of most amateur hybridisers, and 

 a little compartment can readily be partitioned off at the 

 warmest end, and heated with an extra row of pipes ; this will 

 serve all the requirements of a propagating house in a small 

 private garden. 



For the multiplication of conifers, hardy evergreen or decidu- 

 ous shrubs and trees, either from cuttings or seeds, low frames 

 or brick pits are often of great service; and even turf pits 

 covered with canvas stretched on wooden frames may be 

 turned to good account for various propagating purposes. 



Our illustration (p. 22) shows one of these low frames much 

 used by nurserymen and others in the North of England and 

 Scotland, where they are placed on a bed of flax refuse or 



