506 Improvements in the Kitchen-Gardeti 



walk {x), leading through the shrubbery and pleaure-ground 

 to the botanic department and the house. All on the south 

 side of the carriage road {yz) is pleasure-ground. 



The forcing- range {fig. 102. p. 514.) was begun and carried 

 on at the same time with the open garden. Its consists of three 

 vineries with fig trees on the back wall (5, 6, 7); two peach- 

 houses with table trellises, and trees on the back wall (4, 8) ; 

 and six pits or low houses (1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11), for fruiting 

 pines, and for forcing kidneybeans, strawberries, grapes, and 

 figs in pots, roses and flowering shrubs, and flowers generally. 

 We refer to p. 515. for minor details. 



The old houses being removed, the foundations for the 

 new ones, as well as for the border in front of the vineries 

 and peach-houses, were cleared out to the depth of 5 ft., 

 and to the width in the part to contain the vineries and 

 peach-houses of 35 ft. measuring from the back part of the 

 back wall. All the foundations, except that of the back 

 wall, were begun by carrying up piers, and these were 

 joined by arches, which being brought to a level formed a 

 basis, on which to build the flues and all those parts which 

 appear above ground. The entire bottom of the border, 

 within and without the vineries and peach-houses, was formed 

 to a smooth slope with an inclination from the back to the 

 front of 2 ft. This slope was paved with bricks laid flat, and 

 the joints were grouted with mortar ; the object of this pave- 

 ment being to prevent the descent of the roots into the sub- 

 soil. A drain was formed in front of the border, the bottom 

 of which was made about 1 ft. deeper than the surface of this 

 pavement. On the pavement was next laid 12 inches of 

 brickbats over the whole of its surface, and from this stratum 

 air-chimneys were carried up close under the back wall in 

 the houses, and over the drain in front. Sections of these 

 chimneys may be seen in the cross sections of the vineries 

 and peach-houses {Jig. 102. e f g); and the surface gratings 

 which cover them are indicated in the ground plan, along the 

 edge of the garden walk in front of the border, and along the 

 bottom of the back wall in the houses. These chimneys are 

 1 8 inches square in the inside, and covered with iron gratings ; 

 the use of them is to admit air to the porous stratum under 

 the soil of the border; or, in case it should become necessary 

 at any time, water or liquid manure might be poured down, 

 and, by stopping the drain, it would rise in the rubble stratum 

 and through the soil to any required height. It is evident, 

 that by such an arrangement, the gardener has as completely 

 the management of the roots of all his trees, as if they were in 



