1 32 THE FLOWER GROWER'S GUIDE, 



Constructing Greenhouses. 

 It is false economy to construct any greenhouse of cheap inferior materials. Only 

 well-seasoned red deal is suitable for the woodwork, and this should have not less than 

 three coats of good paint — one by way of priming, and two after glazing. For the 

 roof the best Belgian 21-oz. glass ought to be used, a cheaper and lighter glass 

 answering for the sides and ends. Glaze without top putty. If the glass is well bedded 

 in putty, and duly "sprigged," all that is further needed is to smooth the putty neatly 

 both above and below, and the two coats of paint will harden and case over, effectually 

 excluding air. Where this method of glazing is adopted there is no wholesale shelling 

 off of putty, and no loosening of glass from other causes, the economy of the practice 



commending it to all experienced 

 gardeners. The staging inside the 

 houses, in addition to being of a sub- 

 stantial character, ought also to be 

 painted sufficiently often to prevent 

 early and rapid decay of the wood- 

 work. Iron standards or supports 

 are desirable for the staging, and for 

 some classes of plants, including be- 

 gonias, fuchsias, and ferns, slates, 

 wim a covering of line spar, gravel, or ashes, are of good service. Sheets of 

 corrugated iron, galvanised, are cheaper, and largely employed, covered as suggested. 

 Open lattice-work staging over hot-water pipes, and these often highly heated, are 

 inimical to various kinds of plants, especially calceolarias, cinerarias, cyclamens, ferns, and 

 fuchsias. When the stages over the pipes are not open, but close or solid, they should 

 not be flush with the side of the house, but an inch of space ought to be left for the 

 heat to pass upwards, next the front glass, where, otherwise, the frost might reach some 

 of the plants in the winter. 



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Heating. 



Heating will be discussed in connection with the construction of hothouses, but it 

 will not be out of place to remark here that boilers not large enough to keep the water 

 in the pipes comfortably hot without having to " drive " or stoke very hard, are the 

 reverse of economical; and, on the other hand, a too powerful boiler is also objectionable, 



