OW THE FORCING-HOUSES OF THE ROMANS. J49 



tice, gives reason for this supposition ; we all know that 

 peaches ^rown under glass cannot be endowed either with 

 colour or with flavour, unless they are exposed by the re- 

 moval of the lights, from the time of their taking their se- 

 Bond swell, after stoning, to the direct rays of the sun : if 

 this is not done, the best sorts are pale gieen when 

 ripe, and not better than turnips in point of flavour; but it 

 is not likely, that a Roman hot-house should, in the in- 

 fancy of the invention, be furnished with movable lights, 

 as ours are. The Romans had peaches in plenty both hard They had both 

 and melting*. The flesh of the hard peaches adhered to ^"^"^ in pkpty. 

 the stones as ours do *, and were preferred in point of fla- 

 vour to the soft onesf. 



The second epigram refers most plainly to a grape-house. The second 



but it does not seem to have been calculated to force the *^P'«''^'" <**>■ 



,. • 1 1 1 1 • ■ scribes a 



crop at an earner period than the natural one; it is more grape house 



likely to have been contrived for the purpose of securing a iorlaie crops. 



late crop, which may have been managed by destroying the 



first set of bloom, and encouraging the vines to produce a 



second. The last line of the.epigram, which states the oflice 



of the house to be that of compelling the winter to produce 



autumnal fruits, leiads much to this opinion. 



Hot-hoHses seem to have been little used in England, if Hot-houses 



at all, in the beginning of the last century. Lady Mary ?*^^''*^^'y 



iTr 1 T»/r 1 • /^ • 11 known a cen- 



Wortley Montagu, on lior journey to Constantinople, in the tury in Ene- 



year IJlG, remarks the circumstance of pine-apples being '*"<*• 

 served up in the desert, at the Electoral table at Hanover, 

 as a thing sjhe had never before seen or heard of; seeker 

 Lettfrs. Had pines been then grown in England, her lady- 

 ship, who moved in the highest circles, could not have been 

 ignorant of the fact. The public have still much to learn 

 on the subject of hot-houses, of course the Horticultural 

 Society have much 'to teach. 



They have hitherto been too frequently misapplied under Misapplied as 

 the name of forcing-houses, to the vain and ostentatious ["■'cmg- 

 purpose of hurrying fruits to maturity, at a season of the 

 year, when the sun has not the power of endowing them 

 with their natural flavour ; we have begun however to apply 



• Pliny, lib. xv, sect. 34. t Pl»"y» "i^. xv, sect. 11. 



theia 



