348 



ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 



BOOK I- 



watered in two minutes by pouring in water to this stratum by 

 a convenient tube contrived on purpose. It may be thought, as 

 some plants require less water than others, that thereby they 

 would be injured ; but this can easily be prevented by placing 

 such plants in a porous and non-retentive soil, by which means 

 they will absorb no more than what is necessary and proper; at 

 the same time any plants that may require an extraordinary quan- 

 tity ought to be put in a retentive soil, and may further have a 

 little water given to them upon the surface ; for this mode is 

 not meant to supersede surface waterings entirely, except in 

 winter, when that practice generates damps. It is evident, that 

 a glass house of this kind, (heated by fires which at any rate re- 

 quire to be kept up,) with a porous substrata and inner roofing, 

 could be managed with very little trouble or expence. And as 

 a conservatory is one of the greatest luxuries both to a princi- 

 pal residence in the country, and a small villa or cottage near 

 town, perhaps it may tend to promote their more general in- 

 troduction. 



Fig. 2. In this plate is a section that shews the exact manner 

 in which the heat is obtained from, the kitchen fire-place : a a is 

 a wall of masonry ; b b two carron plates ; ccc the passage for 

 the air ; which by being thus confined easily becomes heated, and 

 passes out by the holes in the board d, which serve to diverge 

 it regularly, and prevent any plants from being scorched by it 



