ORANGERIES. 



401 



much of the young wood damps off ; and 

 the trees, being thus treated year after 

 year, become completely exhausted, and 

 at length perish. 



Culture, we ought here to observe, has 

 also something to do with all this. When 

 the Continental gardener has gathered his 

 supply of orange flowers — which is very 

 often a part of his salary — and he thinks 

 his trees have made sufficient young 

 wood, instead of allowing this wood to 

 continue growing, and increasing rapidly 

 the size of his trees, he sets about clipping 

 them all round into as perfect globes as 

 he can with the hedge shears — a species 

 of pruning not exactly in accordance with 

 the modern improvements in plant cul- 

 ture. Were he to use his knife, rather than 

 his shears, his progress would be slower, 

 but the end would be better attained. 

 Still, however, rude as his system of prun- 

 ing is, it is founded upon correct enough 

 principles ; for by this means he fore- 

 shortens the young wood, much as we do 

 vines, rids the trees of superfluous mat- 

 ters, and insures the maturisation of the 

 buds on the short stubby branches left. 

 The sap, which would otherwise be ex- 

 pended in producing extension of shoots 

 which would not ripen, is thrown back 

 into the buds left, and in them elaborated 

 into full and perfect flower buds for the 

 ensuing season. The trees also, being 

 eased of so much wood, have less occa- 

 sion to provide so large a supply of food ; 

 and this may probably in some degree 

 account for the great age some of them 

 attain — often three or four hundred years. 

 Trees so treated, and kept pretty dry 

 during winter — that is, from the begin- 

 ning of November till the end of April — 

 remain perfectly safe under these opaque 

 roofs ; and ages have proved the truth of 

 this assertion. With us, admitting that 

 we were to foreshorten the young wood, 

 still our growing season is neither so long 

 nor so favourable as would suffice to 

 ripen the remainder without the aid of 

 covering; and that, of course, in order 

 to insure perfect health and abundance 

 of bloom, (the only thing to be sought 

 for,) must be of a transparent nature. 

 Hence, we conceive, should originate an 

 entirely different construction of an 

 orangery on the Continent and with us. 

 We may here also remark, that on the 

 Continent the trees are all in a portable 



VOL. I. 



state, to suit them for being moved out 

 and in. They never think of planting 

 them out ; while with us many fine trees 

 have been sacrificed from planting them 

 out in conservatory borders. 



Of all glass structures, none more readily 

 admits of being constructed upon architec- 

 tural principles than the orangery; while, 

 moreover, from the trees being always 

 in foliage, often with their golden fruit 

 hanging on them, and at the proper sea- 

 son perfuming the surrounding air with 

 their blossom, they are of all other exo- 

 tics the best to bring into connection 

 with the mansion ; and to its style the 

 elevation of the orangery may be assimi- 

 lated, and the structure made to form, as 

 it were, a part of it. 



The annexed design, fig. 550, is the 



Fig. 550. 



































































_ 















































O S fO /S 20 25 

 1 1 1 1 1 j 



elevation, and fig. 551 the cross section, 

 of what we consider to be a good example 

 of this kind of structure, calculated for a 



Fig. 551. 



lawn, or other exposed situation. The 

 style of architecture may be varied to 

 suit existing circumstances. The sides 

 and ends are composed of double doors 

 between the columns, all made to open. 

 The fan-lights over them should be fix- 

 tures, as ventilation is to be effected by 



3 E 



