GLASS STRUCTURES AND APPLLiXCES. 



41 



gneyoudy overcrowded, that plant - stores would 

 more fitly describe them than either green-houses 

 or conservatories. But then not a few of the green- 

 houses, and those among the smallest, are often 

 the most brilliantly furnished and tastefully ar- 

 ranged. Size is a more uncertain basis of distinc- 

 tion than purpose, and to assert that the small glass- 

 houses were green-houses ajid the big ones conserva- 

 tories, -would cause a revolution along the leads and 

 balconies, where tiny green-houses abound, and gene- 

 raUy glow into the fuU and blushing importance of 

 suburban or town 

 conservatories. 



Form and design 

 have also been 

 adopted as distinc- 

 tions. Plain lean- 

 to houses have 

 been called green- 

 houses ; span, cur- 

 vilinear, ridge-and- 

 iurrow, domed, or 

 other ornamental- 

 shaped roofs, con- 

 servatories. But it 

 is easy to show that 

 such distinctions 

 have no more solid 

 foundation than the 

 others, and cannot 

 be upheld. 



KnaUy, tempera- 

 ture has been as- 

 sumed to establish 

 and maintain the 

 <ii£Eerence between 

 green - houses and 

 conservatories, and 

 generally it may be 



admitted that there may be a difference of from five 

 to ten or more degrees between the two classes of 

 houses in large places : the green-houses when filled 

 with such plants as Heaths being kept about 40° in 

 winter, while the conservatory, filled with a mixture 

 of flowering plants, ranges from 45° to 50". But then 

 where the green-house is furnished with flowering 

 plants, these differences of temperature disappear or 

 -may be reversed. GreneraUy, however, conservatories 

 are more ornamental than the majority of green- 

 houses, while not a few of the best of both, for pur- 

 poses of culture or of ornamental display, are as plain 

 and unpretentious as bald brick or stone walls and 

 simple glass roofs can make them. 



Great changes of taste have occurred in reference 

 to ornamental structures for plants. WTiile these 

 were designed by or under the sole control of archi- 



Fig. 20.— The Meohasic's Gbkbn-house. 



tects, they were mostly ponderous to a fault, and 

 occasionally beautiful and even magnificent. Now 

 these latter qualities are expected to be found in the 

 plants rather than in the houses that enclose them. 

 Possibly this reaction, like many more, has run to 

 excess, not a few modem green-houses and con- 

 servatories being more like mere skeleton screens, 

 than substantial plant-structures fit to battle for 

 years against the vicissitudes and severities of our 

 fickle climate. 

 Neither is a due regard to ornamental effect a 

 matter to be neg- 

 lected in the erec- 

 tion of green-houses 

 and conservatories. 

 Especially should 

 this have careful 

 consideration when 

 such are attached 

 to or are erected in 

 close proximity to 

 dwelling houses. 

 Great structural 

 beauty and due 

 congruity with sur- 

 rounding objects 

 are quite com- 

 patible with the 

 highest cultural 

 merits in glass- 

 houses, and not a 

 few town and villa 

 residences, and even 

 great country man- 

 sions, are much 

 marred and spoilt 

 by the meanness 

 and meagreness of 

 the green - houses 

 and conservatories abutting against them. A little 

 more art in design, somewhat greater solidity of 

 base, more congruity and harmony with the style and 

 size of the house, a happier choice of a site, would 

 often convert the disfiguring conservatory into a 

 telling ornament in itself, as well as a perpetual 

 source of pleasure and delight through the plants 

 which it securely shelters and nurtures into the 

 highest beauty and perfection. 



But while aU this is true, and deserves the careful 

 consideration of every one about to erect a green- 

 house or conservatory, it must also be added 

 that not a few of either (for there is really no 

 essential distinction between them) of the best- 

 furnished houses, are mere glass eases barely rising 

 above the dignity or the size of common three- 

 light pits, either placed in their usual positions 



