150 On the Forcing-houses of the Romans. 



Hot-houses seem to have been little used in England, if at 

 all, in the beginning of the last century. Lady Mary 

 Wortley Montague, on her journey to Constantinople, in 

 the year 17 16, remarks the circumstance of Pine Apples 

 being served up in the desert,* at the Electoral table at Hano- 

 ver, as a thing she had never before seen or heard of. Had 

 Pines been then grown in England, her Ladyship, who moved 

 in the highest circles, could not have been ignorant of the 

 fact. 



The public have still much to learn on the subject of Hot- 

 houses, of course the Horticultural Society has much to teach. 

 They have hitherto been too frequently misapplied under 

 the name of Forcing-houses, to the vain and ostentatious 

 purpose of hurrying fruits to maturity, at a season of the 

 year, when the sun has not the power of endowing them 

 with their natural flavour; we have begun, however, to apply 

 them to their proper use ; we have Peach-houses built for the 

 purpose of presenting that excellent fruit to the sun, when 

 his genial influence is the most active. We have others for 

 the purpose of ripening Grapes, in which they are secured 

 from the chilling effects of our uncertain autumns, and we 

 have brought them to as high a degree of perfection here, 

 as either Spain, France, or Italy can boast of. We have 

 Pine-houses also, in which that delicate fruit is raised in 

 a better style than is generally practised in its native inter- 

 tropical countries ; except, perhaps, in the well-managed 

 gardens of rich individuals, who may, if due care and atten- 

 tion is used by their gardeners, have Pines as good, but can- 

 not have them better, than those we know how to grow in 

 England. 



* See Lady Mary Woktley Montague's Letters. 



