14^$' ON THE FORCING-HOUSES OF THE ROMANS. 



Foetnineura lucet si<i per bombycina corpast 

 Calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua. 



Quid non ingenio voluit natura licere? 

 Autunmuin stevilis ferre jubetur hiems. 



Martial, lib. viii, 68, 



The four last lines of the first epigram are omitted, as 



having no reference whatever to the subject. 



Their mode of From these passages, and from that of Pliny, in which 



forcing cu- j^^ ^^jig ^^ ^j^^^ Tiberlus, who was fond of cucumbers, had 



cumbers. . . - . — - . . - - 



them in his garden throughout the year by means of {spe» 



cularia) stoves, where they were grown in boxes, wheeled 

 out in fine weather, and replaced in the nights or in cold 

 weather, Pliny, book xix, sect. 23, we may safely infer, 

 that forciag-houses were not unknown to ,the Romans, 

 though they do nut appear to have been carried into gune- 

 rai use. 

 yiues in coiu- Flues the Romans were well acquainted with ;,thpy did 

 nion use ^ot use open fires in thejr apartments as we do, but, In th« 



" ' ' colder countries at leatt, they always had flues uudei' the 

 floors of their apartments. Mr. Lysons found the fliies, and 

 the fire-place whence they received heat, in the Roman 

 villa he has viescribed in Gloucestershire ; in the baths also, 

 which no good house could be without, flues were used to 

 communicate a large proportion of heat for their sudatories* 

 or sweating apartments. 

 They used The article with which their windows were glazed, if the 



ulc instead of ^erm may be used, was talc, or what we call Muscovy glass, 

 {lapis specularis). At Rome, the apartments of the better- 

 roost classes were furnished with curtains [vela*), to keep 

 away the sun ; and windows {specularia'\), to resist cold ; so 

 common was the use of this material for windows, that the 

 glazier, or person who fitted the panes, had a name, and 

 was called specularius. 

 The first epi- O" the epigrams the following remarks present them- 

 gram leiates to selves. The iirst in all probability described a peach-house, 

 ♦ ' the word pale", which is meant as a ridicule upon the prac- 



Transparent * Ulpian I. Quasitum 12. "I^e Romans also made transparent bee- 



Wee-hives. hives of th« same material. Pliny, lib. xxi, sect. 47, 



f Quamvis coen^tionem velis-6t specu'aribus muniant. Seneca^ 



. -. tice 



