278 



THE TROPICAL HOUSE. 



individually, must be watered by the hand, and the mind directed at the 

 same time to the state that each individual is found to be in, and also its 

 nature and disposition, for some plants require much, while others require 

 little, of this element. 



BOTTOM HEAT. 



Bottom heat, as a general rule, has long ago been abandoned by the best 

 cultivators in this country, but pertinaciously adhered to by most of the 

 gardeners on the continent. Experience has proved the advantage of the 

 change, both by the saving effected in the pm'chase of tan, and lessening 

 of labour, and the benefit the plants have experienced from it ; and this 

 can be accounted for on rational principles, for as all natural heat 

 is derived from the sun, and is diffused in the atmosphere which sur- 

 rounds plants in their natural state, so the heat to stove-plants should in 

 like manner be derived from the atmosphere of the house, and not, as in 

 former practice, from beds of tan, leaves, or other fermentable matter 

 placed under them. But although this rule holds good in general prac- 

 tice, there are extraordinary cases where it must be deviated from, and 

 which will be noticed in the proper place. The plants in general should 

 stand on a dry, level surface, formed of gravel, scoriae, or similar materials, 

 capable of allowing a free draining for the superfluous water. 



THE SIZE AND FORM OF TROPICAL PLANT STOVES. 



The size of plant stoves, as we have remarked when treating of green- 

 houses, depends on a variety of circumstances, of which the taste, means, 

 and object of the proprietor are the principal. Few of any extraordinary 

 dimensions have been erected in Britian, a variety of causes combining to 

 operate against them. Those at Sion, a view of which we have chosen 

 for one of our illustrations, are the most extensive in the neighbourhood 

 of London, and those erecting at Chatsworth and Woburn Abbey, the 

 most magnificent in the country. The taste for plants is more generally 

 diffused in England than in any other country, but that taste is chiefly 

 confined to people of moderate fortunes, whose plant erections must of 

 necessity be of moderate dimensions also. The government in this re- 

 spect is much behind that of France, Austria, or Prussia, each of which 

 has houses of vast dimensions for the cultivation of the plants of warmer 

 climates. No one can view the houses in the Jardin'des Plantes at Paris, 

 or those at Schonbrunn, or Rennwegg, in Germany, without regretting that 



