28 M'Intosh's Green-house, Hot-house, and Stove. 



" We have availed ourselves of Mr. Thompson's opinions, because he had 

 ample opportunities of drawing unprejudiced conclusions during the period he 

 had the direction of the extensive hot- houses at Syon, which have been con- 

 sidered the perfection of metallic houses. To his testimony we might add 

 that of many others of equal credit ; but we shall conclude by referring the 

 reader to the opinions of Mr. Paxton of Chats worth, Mr. M'Murtrie of 

 Shughborough, and Mr. Thompson late of Welbeck, published in the Trans- 

 actions of the Horticultural Society and Horticultural Register. For ourselves, 

 we only know of one architect who has attained any celebrity in hot-house 

 architecture, and that is W. Atkinson, Esq., of whose improvements we shall 

 have occasion elsewhere to allude." (p. 11.) 



Mr. M'Intosh next takes a survey of the different modes of 

 heating, by flues, steam, and hot water. The best mode of heat- 

 ing by steam he considers to be that of Stothert of Bath ; and, 

 unlike our friend Mr. Forsyth, he approves of Kewley's mode 

 of heating by hot water. " Nothing," he says, et can act better 

 than Kewley's siphon ; and we believe that it is at present by 

 far the most popular of all other modes." (p. 42.) The follow- 

 ing is a summary of Mr. M'Intosh's opinion on this important 

 subject : — 



" Of all these methods of heating by means of hot water, our opinion is 

 briefly thus : — that, for ordinary purposes, in green-houses and stoves, when 

 the level circulation can be adopted, Atkinson's original method is the best; 

 and although, perhaps, not cheapest in the first erection, is unquestionably so 

 in the end. 



" When the circulation is to be carried over doors, or under footpaths, or, 

 indeed, out of a regular level, Kewley's siphon system is the most to be pre- 

 ferred. 



" And when the greatest possible degree of heat is required, and only a 

 limited space for the apparatus, that of Perkins is certainly the best. 



" For heating small green-houses, balconies, &c, from the fire used for other 

 domestic purposes, that of Curator Anderson is, in our opinion, the most 

 simple and efficient one. 



" By any of these four methods a house, however situated, can be completely 

 and economically heated. We have elsewhere stated our opinion, that, for 

 the ordinary purposes of green-houses, it is scarcel}' worth while erecting 

 hot-water apparatus at all, where smoke flues can be built cheaper, and with- 

 out interfering with the internal arrangements of the house. But, for stoves 

 and other forcing-houses, where a higher degree of temperature is required 

 for three parts of the year, there can be no doubt of the superiority of hot 

 water over every other mode, both as regards economy and convenience." 



Mr. M'Intosh is not only decidedly against the use of iron in 

 green-houses, as we have already seen, but he objects to curvi- 

 linear forms. " We are only surprised," he says, " after the 

 opinions of competent judges have been so frequently laid before 

 the public, that houses of curvilinear forms, and of metallic ma- 

 terials, should not have been, long before now, entirely expelled 

 from our gardens." (p. 53.) 



We were less surprised at the above opinion, than at the fol- 

 lowing : — 



" Much has been said of late years, and, we believe, to very 

 little purpose, upon the angle which the roof of a hot-house 



