FORM OF GREENHOUSE. 



201 



falling to either side or end, corresponding with the glasses, but of course 

 not so steep. A row of columns should be placed in the centre, in order 

 to support the ridge of the roof, to which chmbing plants may be trained 

 in various forms, and may be hung in festoons from column to column, 

 or otherwise, as may be dictated by fancy. The front of the stage all 

 round should be elevated about eighteen or twenty inches above the walk, 

 in order to raise the whole of the plants placed on it sufficiently near 

 the glass. The aspect of such a house should be towards the south, that 

 is to say, it should stretch from east to west, or as nearly so as circum- 

 stances will admit. It may have an entrance at the south side, or one at 

 either end, as shall be most convenient and suitable. If a greenhouse 

 must necessarily be attached to a wall or other building, it might be con- 

 structed very much as above, with the difference only of having one of 

 the ends, as it were, cut off, in which case it should be placed with its 

 circular end south, or towards that point, and the sides pointing east and 

 west. This I should consider," says this intelligent author, ''as the 

 second best constructed greenhouse, and in which, excepting in the above 

 described house, the plants would enjoy the fuUest shai'e of sun and 

 light.' ^ In regard to the space that one well-directed fire, whether ap- 

 pHed through smoke-flues or hot water, wiU heat sufficiently for the purpose 

 of the greenhouse, we may state that from various experiments it appears 

 that from four to five thousand cubic feet of air, that is, of the internal 

 capacity of a greenhouse, may be completely heated by one fire. 



Greenhouses in which a miscellaneous collection of plants are to be 

 cultivated, may be, as we have already observed, of various forms and 



