42 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



on the ground, or set up endways against tlie walls 

 of a house. 



Small Green-houses.— Such structures natu- 

 rally develop into what may be properly called the 

 Mechanic's Green-house (Eig.20). Very often actually 

 made from a few lights, eked out and patched up 



houses may also be seen in the mechanics' gardens of 

 Nottingham and other large towns, in which wonder- 

 ful feats of successful culture are achieved under 

 difficulties that may well seem insuperable to ordi- 

 nary zeal and energy. Bat their owners have mostly 

 something like a mania for gardening, and not a few 

 of them have been known to rob their beds of 



Fig. 21.— A Eeadt-made Stahdabo Patteew Detached Co»SERVAXoar 



with a little extra wood and glass, such a structure ia 

 within the reach of any one who has the least prac- 

 tice in using tools, a few shillings to purchase mate- 

 rials, and the leisure and skill at command to put 

 them together. Even if the skill to construct it 

 be wanting, the total cost is a mere trifle for the 

 pleasure afforded. 



Such small plain houses will probably soon be as 

 common against cottages as the balcony conservatories 

 are now against the better.kinds of suburban or town 

 residences. Immense numbers of tiny detached plant- 



blankets rather than their pot-plants should sufier 

 from sudden frosts. These tiny houses are mostly 

 built by the tenants, and are consequently of all 

 shapes and sizes; and the numbers of plants that are 

 safely stored and successfully cultivated in them is 

 incredible to those that have not seen them. Their 

 money value ranges from one pound to five, few of 

 them, perhaps, being worth more than the latter sum ; 

 but their worth as industrial relaxations, and educa- 

 tional and cultural forces, is beyond aU calculation. 

 No duke or prince could be more proud of his con^ 



