420 



PLANT-HOUSES. 



a height sufficient to secure architectural 

 proportions when compared with the size 

 of the building ; but we question much 

 whether a house of much less altitude 

 would not have suited the purpose of 

 culture better. We think the height of 

 the aquariums at Kew, Sion, the Regent's 

 Park, Messrs Knight and Perry's, and 

 our own, none of which exceed half of 

 that at Chatsworth, are nearer the true 

 height so far as culture is concerned. 

 Ventilation is secured by having open- 

 ings e in the parapet walls all round, 

 fitted with rebated wooden frames with 

 pivot-hung flaps for opening and shutting. 

 The top ventilation is by means of small 

 glazed and framed sashes hinged to the 

 ridges, and made to open and shut by 

 a simple mechanical contrivance. The 

 heating is by means of hot water, 4-inch 

 pipes being carried all round the house 

 parallel to the side and end walls ; while 

 similar pipes heat the tanks, as shown in 

 section, f f. Besides these, 2-inch leaden 

 pipes, g, are also laid immediately under 

 the surface of the water. 



The walls of the tanks are of brick- 

 work, and finished with a wooden coping ; 

 the tanks are laid with pavement, and 

 covered with lead. The footpaths are of 

 larch boarding, laid on oak sleepers. The 

 circular tank is surrounded by a neat 

 hand-rail. The glass used is sheet, 4 

 feet long and 10 inches wide. The up- 

 right sashes are not overlapped, which 

 gives greater transparency to the house. 



It may not be uninteresting, in con- 

 nection with this house, to state that it 

 formed the type of Sir Joseph Paxton's 

 grand idea for the Crystal Palace, which, 

 in fact, was only an extension of the parts 

 employed in the Chatsworth aquarium. 



§ 7. — WINDOW GARDENING. 



Under this head we shall include the 

 various little contrivances of our Conti- 

 nental neighbours, who carry the culti- 

 vation of plants in rooms, on balconies, 

 and in windows, to a much greater extent 

 than has hitherto been done in this coun- 

 try, more especially in towns and cities, 

 where the enjoyment of greenhouses and 

 conservatories is often denied them. N. 

 Ward, Esq., an amateur cultivator, who 

 lived many years in the heart of the city of 



London, carried the cultivation of plants, 

 evenrare ones, and those of difficult growth, 

 to an amazing state of perfection, in small 

 portable greenhouses of elegant forms, and 

 which have now become almost an indis- 

 pensable article of furniture in every 

 drawing-room. These are called Wardian 

 cases, and are found to answer the purpose 

 intended most completely, and are per- 

 haps, upon the whole, much better adapted 

 for the end in view, as they are at the same 

 time far more convenient and elegant, 

 than the window cases so frequently met 

 with on the Continent — the former con- 

 stituting an elegant article of furniture 

 within the room, while the latter is 

 attached to the outside of the window. 

 They preserve the plants much longer 

 in bloom or in a healthy state than the 

 usual mode of setting them in stands or 

 on tables, and at the same time afford a 

 degree of agreeable enjoyment in their 

 management. 



Mr Ward has published a very inter- 

 esting pamphlet on the growth of plants 

 in such cases, which those interested in 

 the matter should peruse. It contains, 

 as Dr Lindley has justly observed, " all 

 the information that can be given ; but 

 it is in few hands, and everybody does 

 not understand the principles on which 

 his cases are constructed. It is imagined 

 by uninformed persons, that complete 

 exclusion of air is the entire object which 

 Mr Ward sought to secure by his contri- 

 vance ; but we need hardly tell the 

 reader who knows anything of the atmo- 

 sphere, that such an effect cannot be 

 attained by a Ward's apparatus : the air 

 finds its way into every place not herme- 

 tically sealed, and such contrivances as 

 close glazing, puttying, and so forth, 

 cannot exclude it. What Mr Ward sought 

 to gain was uniformity of moisture and 

 an exclusion of soot ; and these he effec- 

 tually secured. It is the dryness of the 

 air that destroys plants in sitting rooms 

 and great towns, and not impurities in 

 the gaseous constitution of the atmo- 

 sphere, the importance of which has been 

 singularly overrated. By enclosing plants 

 in tightly-glazed cases, light is admitted, 

 soot is excluded, and any desirable amount 

 of moisture is securable. There are, how- 

 ever, some practical difficulties in the 

 way of growing plants in close moist 

 cases, which amateurs unacquainted with 



