THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



163 



in a perfectly dry day, otherwise tlie damp atmosphere 

 that would be created by the evaporation of their 

 leaves during the first night w^ould be highly in- 

 jurious. 



In making fires to dry up damps, most people 

 choose the evenings : this has the effect of increasing 

 the damps by increasing the evaporation, which cannot 

 be carried off in the night for want of a circulation of 

 air. The best way is to make the fire early in the 

 morning, and, as soon as the external air admits, to 

 open the sashes in different parts of the house to pro- 

 mote a circulation, which will soon carry off all the 

 damps. About mid-day the fire should be allowed to 

 go out, and it need not be renewed in this way oftener 

 than twice a week, and that only in very foggy wea- 

 ther. A very good plan, and one which in effect more 

 rapidly removes damps than the use of flues, is to burn 

 two or three pots of charcoal or coal coke in the floor 

 of the house : it is surprising how completely and soon 

 this dries the air in the house, which being also de- 

 prived of its oxygen, must render the atmosphere of 

 the house less wholesome for the human species ; but 

 this does not affect the plants, which in the mean time 

 are cured of mouldiness, and the air will attain its 

 equilibrium of salubrity in a very few hours afterwards. 



The plants being now arranged as they w^ere when 

 originally placed in the house, all that is requisite is 

 to attend to air, water, heat, and cleanliness. Air 

 must be given every day when the thermometer in the 



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