2 GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION AND HEATING, 
A well-kept greenhouse or conservatory, heated to a 
moderate and pleasant degree, also affords a delightful winter 
resort, and enables fresh air and gentle exercise to be taken, 
even by invalids and delicate persons, who would otherwise 
be unable to pass the house-doors in severe weather. There 
is nothing more truly healthful than the smell of the fresh 
earth, the perfume of flowers, and the exhalations of active 
vegetation, while the moderately-heated conservatory or 
plant-house enables us to enjoy the climate of Italy or the 
South of France only just outside our own doors! Con- 
stantly working in high temperatures is doubtless enervating 
in some degree, if not really injurious ; but these are only 
necessary in the case of a comparatively few subjects, or for 
certain purposes, and a pleasant and moderate temperature 
of about 60 degs. Fahr. is quite sufficient for the great 
majority of flowering and foliage plants, fruits, ete.; at any 
rate during the seasons of winter and spring. 
Again, how pleasant it is to be able to cut a handful of 
fresh and fragrant blossoms, a bunch or two of grapes, a few 
tomatoes, or the like, direct from the plants in one’s own 
greenhouse! Such truly “home-grown” produce is really 
superior, as a rule, to anything of the kind bought in a 
shop, being, for one thing so much fresher, while quality 
and flavour may and should be studied by the private or 
amateur gardener to a much greater extent than is possible 
by the trade or market grower, whose chief aim is quantity, 
almost irrespective of any other consideration, mere 
appearance, however, excepted. 
It has been said, and with a good deal of truth, that a 
man without a hobby is but a poor kind of creature; and 
there can be no doubt that a hobby, if a reasonable one, and 
