306 



FRUIT-HOUSES. 



mental pattern, admitting air and water 

 to the border, and at the same time being 

 much more comfortable to walk on than 

 the longitudinal strips of wood constitut- 

 ing the generality of footpaths of such 

 houses. The roof, as well as the back 

 wall, is trellised with wire in a neat and 

 substantial manner. A passage runs 

 along the front, between the two courses 

 of pipes, and rises by steps at the ends 

 to the level of the passage behind. The 

 boiler is in the sheds behind, and so ar- 

 ranged that two houses may be heated 

 from the same point. We may here re- 

 mark that, from our conversations with 

 Mr Crosskill, we find that when he forms 

 curvilinear roofs he makes them of 



wrought-iron, and, dispensing with raf- 

 ters, makes his roofs fixtures, or a con- 

 tinuation of astragals, with ventilators 

 upon Atkinson's principle. 



Our own opinion of metallic hothouses 

 is, that they should have no upright 

 sashes in front if lean-to ones, nor upright 

 side sashes if span-roofed, but that the 

 roofs should be formed of a continuous 

 series of astragals, curved at the lower 

 ends, as in the following fig. It is one of 

 the few advantages that metallic houses 

 have over wooden ones, that the astragals 

 can be so curved without loss of material. 



The elevation, Plate XVIII., and in- 

 ternal perspective view, fig. 413, show 

 a vinery erected and designed by George 



Mushet, Esq., Dalkeith, for his own the most beautiful and most complete 



use. Mr Mushet is an extensive iron- houses of the kind that we have seen, 



founder, and has spared neither ex- The whole structure, excepting the back 



pense nor ingenuity to produce one of wall and the hot-air chamber a, for the 



