TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE HOUSES. 



77 



winter ; never, if it can be prevented, over seventy- 

 five degrees in summer. 



But, not to speak any longer of such expensive 

 fern-houses as wealth only can construct, there are 

 many persons who can afford a house of modest 

 cost ; and, even if they are obliged to place in it 

 all their winter stock of garden-plants, there is no 

 reason for their being discouraged, and giving up 

 their ideas of raising fine specimens of ferns. A 

 house with a span-roof is to be preferred : but on 

 some accounts, for the mixing of flowering plants 

 and ferns, one with a single slope will do almost 

 as well ; for a wide shelf at the upper part of the 

 back will hold all the plants requiring bright sun, 

 while at the same time it shades the lower portion 

 of the house. If primarily the house is intended 

 for ferns, it should face the north if the roof is a 

 single slope, or run east and west if it is a span. 

 A good size to easily manage for one's self, or with 

 the assistance of one man who is supposed to do 

 the general outside work of the garden as well, 

 will be 30 by 20 feet, with a pitched roof, whose 

 height may vary from 10 to 20 feet, according to 

 the owner's fancy and the height of the plants 

 to be cultivated. In the colder sections of the 

 country, if the drainage of the land upon which 

 the house stands is good, the walls should run 

 much below the surface, and the house become as 

 nearly as possible a roofed pit. The work spent 



