TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE HOUSES. 79 



bottom heat. The sides can be of wood, and the 

 trough thus made filled with sand. The centre of 

 the house may be made into a raised bed in which 

 to plant out the large specimens, or they may be 

 placed upon it in their pots. If we do not care to 

 grow the plants separately, so that they may be 

 moved for exhibition or other purposes, the house, 

 or as much of it as can be spared, m.ay be con- 

 verted into a natural fernery, and rocks, water, 

 wire screens, &c., may be introduced. The writer's 

 fern-house may illustrate these suggestions for 

 buildings of limited cost and pretensions. 



It was not originally built for the particular culti- 

 vation of ferns, and is a single-slope house, 21 by 17 

 feet, and 13 feet high at the back. It faces the 

 south ; yet, with care, as fresh and healthy ferns can 

 be grown in it as in a place better suited in plan to 

 their special needs. And, what is more, very fair 

 success has attended the cultivation of a collection 

 of Cacti, Aloes, and Agaves, upon a shelf four feet 

 below the top, at the back wall. 



This house has had only an amateur's care, and 

 has been left, much of the time, to a young man, 

 who, previous to this work, had no knowledge of 

 plants. Although the general out-door duties of 

 the place have also come to him to do, he has given 

 the house such thoughtful attendance, that any 

 thing worthy the name of a loss has rarely occurred. 

 So it seems possible that the fear of the expense 



