CONSERVATOEIES. 



ONSEEVATOEIES are glazed structures either adjoining or situated conveniently 



^ near a dwelling-house, and kept constantly gay with flowering and fine-foliaged 

 plants during the greater part of the year. Sometimes they are both ornamental in 

 appearance and well adapted to the purpose for which they are constructed, but more 

 often they form part of a general house design, in which case the architect sacrifices 

 everything to appearance. Those lofty buildings, composed largely of heavy stone, 

 iron, and rolled glass, do add greatly to the'general effect, completing one wing, it may 

 be, of a mansion, but the gardeners who are responsible for decorating the interior of 

 such so-called conservatories find them the very opposite of what the name implies, and, 

 instead of preserving plants in a healthy state, effect their ruin ; hence not a few of the 

 structures are described by cultivators of plants as " slaughter-houses." Some few 

 climbers and other kinds may be made to grow and flower, also tall palms thrive fairly 

 well in them, but the greater portion of the plants prepared in other parts of the garden 

 and introduced to this kind of "conservatory" soon lose much of their attractiveness, 

 and find their way only too quickly either to a "hospital" or rubbish heap. These 

 high, dark houses are also frequently subject to great fluctuations of temperature, and 

 at times frost can only be kept out with the greatest difficulty, thus making them still 

 more unsuitable for sustaining choice plants in good health. Even if lofty structures 

 are so well heated as to be kept at a comfortable temperature, there is a dryness about 

 them that is injurious to plant life, and in any case small plants in pots cannot be made 

 to thrive so far from the glass, as they must perforce be arranged in the high and sharp 

 pitched roofs of externally ornamental erections indicated. 



It is possible to construct conservatories, both ornamental in appearance and well 

 adapted for preserving in good health a great variety of plants grown in them. No 

 specific type of structure can be said to be suitable for erection in any position, so 

 much depending upon the surroundings. That is why it is necessary, or, at all events, 

 most advisable, to call in the assistance of an experienced horticultural builder rather than 



