HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



m 



CONSERVATOEY. 



'* Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too : 

 Unconscious of a less propitious clime, 

 There blooms exotic beauty, wai-m and snug 

 "While the winds whistle and the snows descend." — CowPER. 



The Conservatory is 270 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 75 

 feet high, and although the arcade in an altered form continues 

 to run round by the back, it is not seen from without, and the 

 building has the appearance of being wholly composed of glass 

 and iron. As already mentioned, it is placed in the middle of 

 the northern or Albani Ai'cades ; in fact, these arcades continue 

 their course through the Conservatory, merely descending in the 

 middle by broad flights of steps on each side, to give access to 

 the top from below. The arcade thus forms the lower part of 

 the back of the Conservatory, and the body of the building 

 projects in front of it. The walls, the sides, and the roof, are of 

 glass, resting on slender iron pillars and framework ; the long 

 main pillars are 40 feet in height, additional length being 

 obtained where required by fittmg and fastening pillar above 

 pillar. Along the back wall of the building, and below the 

 gallery above, runs a corridor of arches of brick, enlivened with 

 diamond-shaped pieces of white marble. This is a favourite 

 place for a pleasant view of the company and flowers in the 

 centre of the building, as is also the gallery above it. In the 

 middle this corridor is interrupted by a broad flight of steps 

 leading up to a dais, or raised landing-place, from each side of 

 which rise the flights of steps leading to the galleries and top 

 of the arcade. 



