186 M^IntosKs Practical Gardener. 



the material, is constantly peeling off. Putty is also recommended to be 

 spread over half the bar, to lessen the conducting principle ; most glaziers 

 agree that the smaller the quantity of putty used, the less liable it is to 

 loosen or fall off; and this is accounted for upon nearly the same principle, 

 that thin coats of paint are better than thick ones. There is certainly no 

 instance within our knowledge of any material injury being produced by the 

 effects of the electric fiuid, but that is no reason why such should never be 

 the case. Accidents of that nature so seldom happen, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, that it is by no means a matter of surprise that it has not happened 

 in the case of metallic houses, when we consider the comparative few in 

 number throughout the kingdom. 



" Practical gardeners are, and have been, doubtful of the success of such 

 houses. Abercrombie and Speechly in England, and Nichol in Scotland, 

 excellent practical and experimental gardeners, were decidedly against them, 

 and most others have avoided giving their opinion. Mr. Atkinson, who has 

 designed and built more hot-houses than probably any other architect of 

 the day, is also decidedly against them. Those who have adopted them are 

 chiefly amateurs, or philosophical gardeners ; some few practical men have 

 had the' management of them, and one or two have built from their 

 own designs. The most extensive erections of this sort are now building 

 under the direction of Mr. Forrest, at Sion House. The result of his suc- 

 cess will probably tend to set the matter at rest." 



We give this long quotation, because it contains the opinion of a " prac- 

 tical man," and also of one " who has designed and built more hot-houses 

 than probably any other architect of the day." We differ in opinion from 

 both, but may, in the long run, be found in the wrong. It is singular, that 

 some hundreds of squares of glass should have been broken daily in the ine- 

 tallic skylight in the Regent's Park by expansion, and not one by the same 

 cause, or by contraction, in the iron houses in the garden of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, or in any other iron houses that we have heard of. But the 

 truth is, and we are surprised it should not be known to Mr. M'Intosh, 

 who was head'gardener at the Colosseum at the time, the breakage of the 

 glass, and the general derangement of the skylight, of the whole of one 

 side of the building, including a rent in the outer wall, were produced by 

 the giving way of the foundation, in consequence of some excavations. 

 This was and is perfectly well known to the glazier and to the stone mason 

 employed by Mr. Hornor, who, happening to be the tradesmen we employ, 

 mentioned it to us at the time. How Mr. M'Intosh came to be ignorant of 

 this cause of breakage we cannot conceive. 



It is evident the builders of iron hot-houses have no fear of expansion or 

 contraction breaking the glass, for Messrs. Bailey, Bramah, Richards, Jones, 

 and Cottam generally contract to keep their erections in repair for fourteen 

 years, for nothing in some cases, and a very small per centage in others. 

 With respect to price, we might quote certain iron hot-houses at Woburn, 

 and certain wooden houses erected there at the same time, and under the 

 direction of the same architect, Mr. Atkinson, in the same garden, in which 

 the iron houses are the cheaper, even at first cost. (See England, p. 213.) 

 We admit that the duration of iron houses depends very much on their 

 being regularly painted, as does that of wooden houses : but, if the duration 

 of iron houses were even less than that of wooden ones, we should still 

 prefer the former, on account of the superior quantity of light which they 

 admit, and which is of so much importance in the winter and spring 

 months ; at which season hot-houses, if they are worth any thing, should 

 afford the greatest enjoyment. It is not a little to the credit of two of the 

 greatest noblemen of this country, that, from their own reason and exami- 

 nation of the question, they have adopted iron houses on a more extensive 

 scale than has hitherto been done, not only in opposition to a host of pre- 

 judices on the part of many gardeners, and some architects, but, if we are 



