2 



INTRODUCTION. 



In what age of the world, and in what country a 

 green-house first appeared, it is impossible to deter- 

 mine ; it is sufficient to have shown that a taste for 

 this appendage to a dwelling is natural to man ; to 

 experience that it adds to his enjoyments ; and to feel 

 that it bestows a certain claim to distinction on its 

 possessor. A green-house is in a peculiar degree 

 the care of the female part of a family, and forms an 

 interesting scene of care and recreation to a mother 

 and her daughters, at a season of the year when there 

 is but little inducement to walk in the kitchen- 

 garden, and nothing to do in the parterre or the 

 shi'ubbery. The progress of vegetation, interesting 

 in all scenes, and at all seasons, is more especially so 

 in a green-house during winter. There the objects 

 are of limited number, brought near the eye by their 

 position, and rendered striking by their contrast with 

 the cold, naked, and dreary scenes which are shut 

 out : — then it is that the genial climate, the life and 

 growth, the deep tone of verdure, and the prevailing 

 stillness of repose within, cause this winter garden 

 to be felt as a luxuriant consecration to man. 



But all green-houses do not yield the enjoyments 

 which a green-house is calculated to produce; be- 

 cause all are not well contrived, or judiciously ma- 

 naged for that purpose. Some do not know what a 

 green-house will, and what it will not afford ; and 

 others expect all its peculiar enjoyments without their 

 accompanying cares. Some erect a green-house of 

 such a form and position, that the plants within can 



