GREEN-HOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



995 



octagonal, or with two straight sides, and circular ends, which 

 I think the best form of any ; the next best, an octagon, whose 

 sides are not equal, but with two opposite longer sides and six 

 shorter sides ; three and three opposite formjing, as one might 

 say, an angular oval, the ends being angular instead of round. 

 In either of these last-mentioned forms, the stages and plants 

 may be more tastefully arranged than in any other. Granting 

 either of these cases, the house should be about thirty-six or 

 forty feet long, eighteen or twenty feet wide, and ten or, at 

 most, twelve feet high above a given level line for its floor. 

 The parapet all round to be a foot or fifteen inches high, and 

 the upright glasses placed on it four or five and a half feet a 

 most. For," as he justly observes, " it is of importance for 

 the sake of the finer kinds of plants, and in order to have all 

 kinds grow bushy, and flower while young and small (in which 

 state they are certainly most attractive and pleasing) to keep 

 the roof-glasses as low as possible, just allowing sufficient 

 head-room to the tallest person when walking in the passage." 

 In regard to the concealment of the furnace and stock-hole, 

 which ought to be kept fi'om view, he further remarks : — 

 " The furnace and stock-hole may be placed at either end or 

 at either side, as may be most convenient, and they should be 

 sunk under ground and be concealed. The flue to be con- 

 structed to run parallel to, and to be separated from, the pa- 

 rapet by a three-inch cavity, its surface being level with the 

 top of the parapet, and being crib-trellised for heaths, Botany- 

 Bay, and other rare plants. A walk, thirty or thirty-six inches 

 oroad, to be conducted all round next to the flue, within 

 which to be placed the stages for the more common and the 

 taller plants, being raised in the middle and falling to either 

 side and end ; corresponding with the glasses, though of course 

 not so steep. A row of columns should be placed in the 

 centre, in order to support the ridge of the roof, to which 

 climbing-plants may be trained in various forms, and might 

 be hung in festoons from column to column at top, or other- 

 wise, as may be dictated by fancy. The front of the stage 

 all round should be raised about eighteen or twenty inches 

 above the walk, in order to raise the whole of the plants placed 



