Ventilating Hothouses without excluding Light. 395 



terruption to the view. The top of the opening is splayed, as 

 well as the sides, and these are all filled in with mirrors. The 

 floor of the room is 2 ft. above the floor of the greenhouse and 

 general surface. There is a sliding shutter outside, coloured 

 and trellised the same as the greenhouse walls, to prevent any . 

 appearance of a window when desired, and even the joints of 

 this is hid by a trellis framework round the window, with a seat 

 in the lower part to perfect the delusion. 



I shall try to describe this end of the room in its present 

 state. By the arrangement of the plants in the greenhouse, any 

 one sitting at the library table in the room has a perfect view of 

 the gate and the park beyond. A stranger, on entering, pays 

 no attention to the handsome oak bookcases which occupy 

 the recesses on each side of the breastwork ; he has no eye to 

 scan the neat but very low shell-marble chimneypiece, or the 

 handsome Sylvester's stove within it; he is at once bewildered 

 and perplexed with the vista of plants before him, and doubts 

 his having entered the proper place, for these are trebled in ad- 

 mirable intricacy by the splayed mirrors round the window. 

 Here he sees the splendid -Rhododendron altaclerense forming 

 a background to the more delicate Zvilium speciosum; there 

 the tall and stately Fuchsm corymbiflora, with its drooping 

 flowers, taking under its protection the more humble pelargo- 

 niums. Besides these are the Araucaria excelsa, myrtles, acacias, 

 and a variety of interesting fuchsias, &c, vying with each other 

 in richness of tint and gracefulness of form ; with innumerable 

 others of bewitching beauty, that appear like enchantment, and 

 remind the visitor of his boyish dreams over the Arabian 

 Nights, which are now realised. This is the effect which, in an 

 instant, as if by magic, can be destroyed, leaving a room with 

 two dull windows and a mirror over the fireplace. 



Chatsworth, July 21. 1842. 



Art. V. A Mode of Ventilating Hothouses •without excluding Light. 

 By T. Tore ron. 



As an effectual means of ventilation, and the direct admission 

 of perpendicular light in glazed edifices, I beg leave to suggest 

 that, in sliding roofs, about 2 or 2g feet, at the upper end of 

 the roof, should be made to tilt on hinges back to the parapet, 

 or to run over the back wall by a continuation of the rafters. 

 By either of these modes the lights would not lie one over the 

 other, so as to intercept double the quantity of light usually ex- 

 cluded by glass. 



The other sashes being made of convenient lengths, say 5 ft., 

 for sliding freely either up or down, the trees and plants might 



