PINERIES. 



331 



or open brickwork ; and sometimes by 

 hot-water pipes passing through a hollow 

 chamber beneath the bed on which the 

 plants are plunged, planted out, or set, 

 and occasionally on a stage or platform, 

 in the manner of greenhouse plants, as 

 recommended by the late T. A. Knight, 

 Esq. 



The best constructed pineries are either 

 low in the roof, or the beds are elevated 

 so far that the plants may be near the 

 glass. The necessity of this led to the 

 adoption of pits, a plan generally followed 

 on the Continent, and also frequently in 

 this country. 



Speechly and Nicol were amongst the 

 first who improved this kind of structure; 

 and were a section of a fruiting-house, 

 given by the former of these authors, 

 consulted, it would be seen to differ little, 

 except in the discontinuance of the smoke- 

 flues, from most of those in present use. 

 He also, in 1792, heated the bed of a pine- 

 stove by steam, perhaps as successfully, 



and certainly at infinitely less expense, 

 than many of our modern applications 

 of it. 



The large, double-pitted pine-stove 

 erected by Speechly at Welbeck, must 

 have been the wonder of its day, and 

 was probably the first large fruit hot- 

 house erected in Britain. It was intend- 

 ed for the growth of grapes as well as of 

 pines. That house does not now exist, 

 nor does that built upon the same plan 

 in the Royal Gardens at Kew; but one 

 of the same dimensions we saw lately at 

 Harewood House, in which both pines 

 and grapes were exceedingly well grown. 



Nicol's pine-houses were almost similar 

 to Speechly's. He, however, ultimately 

 preferred growing pines in pits, and 

 arranged them in three divisions — one 

 for fruiting-plants in the centre, one at 

 one end for succession-plants, and the 

 other for crowns and suckers. 



Atkinson's pinery. — The accompanying 

 plan, fig. 448, and section, fig. 449, will 



Fig. 448. 



show the principle of this structure. Our 

 long and intimate acquaintance with this 

 eminent architect has put us in posses- 

 Fig. 449. 



sion of copies of many of his horticultural 

 designs. We prefer, however, so far as 

 practicable, to give specimens of houses 



actually existing; and with this view 

 we now transcribe, from the " Hortus 

 Woburnensis," Mr Forbes's lucid descrip- 

 tion of the pineries erected for the Duke 

 of Bedford, from Mr Atkinson's designs : 

 " This house is 65 feet long, and 13 feet 

 wide in the clear, and is divided into two 

 divisions. The sashes and rafters are of 

 wood, and fixtures; consequently air is 

 admitted by the ventilators a a in section. 

 They are placed in the back wall, and 

 along the centre of the front wall, which, 

 together with opening the doors, will 

 admit a sufficiency of air in the summer 

 season for the pine apple. The houses 

 are heated by hot water, with separate 

 boilers and pipes for each division. The 

 boilers, b b, are placed in a recess, about 

 the centre of the back wall — (vide fig. 449) 



