358 



FRUIT-HOUSES. 



the structure, excepting that of the para- 

 pet wall, should be portable, and removed 

 when no longer required ; or the parapet 

 walls, hot-water pipes, &c, as well as the 

 superstructure, may remain, the sashes 

 only being removed, and that principally 

 for the purpose of their being employed 

 in covering late peaches, or ripening the 

 finer kinds of pears by the agency of solar 

 heat only. 



§ 5. — TKOPICAL FEUIT HOUSE. 



In a first-rate garden a house for rais- 

 ing tropical fruits should exist ; few, 

 however, have been dedicated to this 

 purpose in this country. As glass is now 

 cheap — the price of which hitherto pre- 

 vented even the most opulent from enjoy- 

 ing many of the most delicious fruits of 

 the tropics — we see no difficulty now in 

 having the guava, custard apple, banana, 

 bread-fruit, coffee, jack-fruit, lee-chee, 

 loquat, mango, mangosteen, plantain, 

 tamarind, &c, cultivated to greater per- 

 fection (as is the case with the pine) than 

 they are to be found in their native 

 countries. The ginger, sugar-cane, and 

 similar herbaceous plants might also be 

 cultivated; and the valuable spices, the 

 clove, cinnamon, camphor, allspice, and 

 nutmeg, brought to useful perfection. 

 We do not mean to say, that the latter 

 five spices can be cultivated artificially, 

 even in sufficient quantity to supply the 

 wants of the owner ; but that the others 

 may be, is beyond a doubt. Such a 

 structure as is exhibited in the sec- 

 Fig. 496. 



tion, fig. 496, (which is designed for the 

 ground-plan in fig. 21,) may be 



considered sufficient for a garden and 

 family of the first order. This house is 

 62| feet long, and 20^ wide. It is here 

 shown as a curvilinear structure, rising 

 from the parapets a a, and ventilated by 

 openings, b b, along the sides for the 

 admission of air, and by an opening along 

 the whole length of th^roof at c, upon 

 the principle exhibited, fig. 389, in section 

 Ventilation. As all lofty hothouses 

 hitherto built have been defective in top 

 ventilation, we have shown that portions 

 of the roof are to be made to slide down, 

 as at d d ; and these are to be drawn up 

 and down by a double-line roller and 

 pulleys fixed to the ridge-boards, upon the 

 principle shown in article Ventilation, 

 as adopted in the conservatory of the 

 Botanical Society of London. We would 

 propose that all the trees and plants in 

 such a house should be grown in large 

 pots and boxes, being, with most practical 

 men, convinced that planting out trees 

 of difficult culture — as most of those in 

 question are — in borders, however care- 

 fully prepared, leaves them subject to 

 accidents at the roots, which are in no 

 way so easily detected and remedied than 

 when the trees are treated as we have 

 recommended. That a degree of genial 

 bottom heat is of great advantage to 

 such trees and plants, we know from long 

 experience ; and to supply this in the most 

 convenient way, and in the least objec- 

 tionable manner, we would heat the floor 

 they stand upon as shown by Mr Glen- 

 dinning in section Tank-Heating, fig. 

 262. The radiation of heat from the 

 eight courses of pipes, as shown at e e, 

 will be sufficient for excluding cold from 

 the glass surface ; but that it would be 

 sufficiently powerful to heat the large 

 volume of air towards the centre of the 

 house, particularly during winter, we 

 very greatly doubt. A flow and return 

 pipe, to be used in cold weather, is 

 placed along the centre of the house 

 in an air-chamber covered with cast- 

 iron gratings. Hot -water gutters, as 

 shown in the example alluded to, should 

 therefore be employed ; and as these 

 of necessity should be placed under 

 the floor level, a separate boiler should 

 be devoted to heating them. The stoke- 

 holes and boilers should, in the case 

 before us, be set at the end next the 

 back wall, and the return of the pipes 



