II. 



ORNAMENTAL HOT-HOUSES. 



811 



Chap. V. 



Of the Hot-houses used in Ornamental Horticulture. 



6161. The hot-houses of floriculture are the frame, glass case, green-house, orangery, 

 conservatory, dry-stove, the bark or moist stove, in the flower-garden, or pleasure-ground ; 

 and the pit and hot-bed in the reserve-garden. In the construction of all of these the 

 great object is, or ought to be, the admission of light and the power of applying artificial 

 heat with the least labor and expense. In culinary forcing-houses, it is requisite to at- 

 tend to the angle of the glass roof, so as to obtain most of the sun's influence at the time 

 the fruit witlun is to be ripened ; but in the hot-houses of the flower-garden or pleasure- 

 ground, the construction ought to be such as to admit as much light as possible in win- 

 ter ; for then in the stoves a heat is kept up by art, which is not to be found in any 

 natural climate connected with so little light as is then afforded in our latitude. Hence, 

 as a general principle it may be affirmed, that the roofs of all plant or botanic hot- 

 houses should be steep rather than flat, and, perhaps, the angle of 45 may be fixed on 

 as the fittest average. It was adopted by Miller, both in culinary and ornamental hot- 

 houses, and is fitter for general purposes than any other. 



6162. The frame used in ornamental horticulture is generally of the same form as 

 those of the kitchen-garden. For alpine plants this form succeeds perfectly, but for 

 frame-shrubs, the ends and front should be deeper than usual, and glazed half their 

 depth, to admit the sun to the surface of the adjoining pots. Frames for the taller 

 bulbous-rooted flowers, should either be glazed in front and at both ends, or if opaque 

 in those parts, should be placed on a steep surface for the same general object. Frames 

 of every description should have a gutter or spout in front, to carry off the rain-water 

 which falls on the sashes. 



6163. The glass case maybe variously constructed from detached sashes; it is used 

 to protect standard trees or shrubs, and sometimes to place against walls or espaliers. 

 (see fig. 326.) 



6164. The green-house may be designed in any form, and placed in almost any situa- 

 tion as far as respects aspect. Even a house looking due north, if glazed on three sides 

 of the roof, will preserve plants in a healthy vigorous state. A detached green-house, 

 even in the old style, may be rendered an agreeable object in a pleasure-ground, of 

 which, as an example, we may refer to one (Jig. 567.) erected by Todd, for 



E. Liebenrood, Esq. near Reading ; but the curvilinear principle applied to this class 

 of structures, admits of every combination of form, and without militating against the ad- 

 mission of light and air. Though we are decidedly of opinion, however, that as iron roofs 

 on the curvilinear principle become known, the clumsy shed-like wooden or mixed 

 roofs now in use will be erected only in nursery and market-gardens ; yet we are not 

 to be understood as exclusively recommending our own plans, and we, therefore, de- 

 scribe that of Todd, whose book contains a number of examples, erected in different 

 parts of the country, and in the best manner of the old style. " This house (fig. 567, ) 

 has a span roof, and the centre lights, which are balanced by weights, made in imitation 

 of acorns, suspended from the ridge of the roof, are made to slide, to admit air from the 

 roof. The front and ends are ^<^^^^^"^==c= 



formed with folding case- 

 ments, hung so as to be 

 taken away at pleasure ; and 

 between each is a pilaster 

 of treillage-work. A cast- 

 iron column at each ex- 

 tremity of the upper part of 

 the roof, is placed for the 

 purpose of keeping it from 

 spreading, as such roofs ge- 

 nerally do, unless held to- 

 gether by a transverse tie, which has a less pleasant appearance than a column. A 



