264 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



blossoms; and Frincesse Marie, with reddish-pink 

 flowers ; Myrianthes, blush edged with rose ; Reine des 

 Frangaises, vivid rose ; Flora, bright rose <, Banksice- 

 fiora, white with a yellow centre ; and Forma Maria, 

 pure white, small, and very double. 



The use of pedestal plants in pots is too obvious 

 to need more than mention. 



HOUSE-TOPS. 



House-top gardening will not require any length- 

 ened treatment at our hands. 

 Horticulture at this eleva- 

 tion will be either under 

 glass or in the open. If the 

 roof be covered with glass, 

 instead of with tiles or slates, 

 the top of the building be- 

 comes a green-house ; and 

 green -house gardening is 

 treated of separately. 



If glazed cases are placed 

 upon the roof, our remarks 

 on conservatory windows 

 may be referred to as applic- 

 able to gardening of this 

 description. 



And if it be intended to 

 grow plants in the open air 

 upon the house-top, we have 

 little to add to what we 

 have said on the point under 

 the heading of balcony gar- 

 dening. Where it is pos- 

 sible to provide a sufficient 

 body of earth for Vines, or 

 Figs, to grow in upon the 

 house-top, there seems no 

 reason why good crops of 

 fruit should not be obtained 



in localities where the atmosphere is not too much 

 affected by smoke. The plants would have to be 

 tied down to a light framework of wood, which 

 must be kept about twelve inches away from the 

 tiles, and access must be had to all parts of the 

 plants for the purposes of pruning, training, and 

 gathering the fruit. 



There can be no doubt that the great majority 

 of houses in England are so constructed that horti- 

 culture upon their roofs is an impossibility. This 

 may arise either from there being no access to the 

 roof, or no space even if there were access. - But 

 supposing that space and convenient access do 

 exist, care must be taken not to put more weight 

 on the roof than it will bear, for roofs are not 

 often built to carry much more weight than the 



would be best, therefore, to take the opinion of 

 a builder, or architect, as to the number of pots that 

 it would be safe to put upon any roof which might 

 be utilised in this manner. 



If plants are merely standing on a flat lead roof, 

 little harm is likely to accrue ; but upon no account 

 should sloping stages, pressing against an outer wall 

 or parapet, be used without professional advice, as 

 such a proceeding might bring about a serious acci- 

 dent. With buildings only one storey high, much 

 plant-growth may be at- 

 tempted, either by strength- 

 ening the roof to enable it to 

 bear the additional weight, 

 or building an independent 

 stage over it, so that none 

 of the extra weight shall fall 

 on the roof. Many sheds 

 and outbuildings in yards 

 and gardens might be so 

 constructed that some por- 

 tion, if not the whole, of the 

 i oof might be used for hor- 

 ticultural purposes. 



It is much to be regretted 

 that more attention has not 

 been given by architects to 

 roofing houses with glass, 

 and so constructing this part 

 of a house that it may be 

 used for the growth of plants 

 in pots. A comparatively 

 small additional outlay at 

 the time of building a 

 house, in raising the ex- 

 ternal wall two or three 

 feet, strengthening the joists 

 over the ceilings of the 

 top rooms, and boarding 

 a trap- door and a step- 

 for proper ventilation in 

 would convert the house- 

 top into an excellent green-house instead of its 

 being, as now, a useless part of the building. 

 Some horticulturists are bewailing, and reason- 

 ably so to some extent, the number of miles of 

 railway banks and slopes that are allowed to remain 

 uncultivated, when in many districts good crops of 

 fruit and vegetables might be grown upon them. If 

 they would think of the thousands of acres of useless 

 house-tops now in England, and would advocate the 

 building of all new houses with glass roofs, we 

 should have more cheerful homes from the greater 

 abundance of flowers, and better health from the 

 production and consumption of fruit, which we do 



Fig. 31.— Plant in Pedestal Pot for Portico 



them over, providing 

 ladder, and arranging 

 the glass-covered roof, 



needful supply of tiles, or slates, to cover them. It not now eat because we have to buy it. 



