GREEN-HOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



1009 



of clamp ; for which purpose they should be often examined 

 during fine days, and all appearance of damp removed or coun- 

 teracted. They should stand on, or be plunged in a dry bot- 

 tom of coal-ashes, or loose pebbly gi'avel, and should be kept 

 clean from mosses or weeds. Dead leaves should be carefully 

 picked oif them where they appear, and the plants often turned 

 to the sun. 



Pits built of bricks, having their walls twelve inches thick, 

 and covered v/ith glass, will protect many species of plants for 

 the greater part of the year, with the assistance of a covering of 

 mats in times of frost. During severe frosts the side walls may 

 be covered by applying a quantity of littery dung, leaves, or 

 similar matter, not, however, wdth a view to give any heat of 

 themselves, but merely to prevent the penetration of frost 

 through them. The glasses should also be covered with double 

 or treble mats, or with soft hay, straw, or any more convenient 

 substitute. The mere exclusion of frost being sufficient, every 

 means likely to attain that end should be minutely attended to. 

 In such pits should also be wintered those green-house plants 

 which are intended to decorate the flov/er garden borders in 

 summer. We flatter ourselves that if this metliod of protecting 

 plants during winter were more generally adopted, we should 

 then see more respectable collections in the gardens of this 

 country; but it is v/ith this, as with many other matters con- 

 nected with horticulture, depending, in a very great degree, 

 upon the taste and disposition of the gardener. Were collec- 

 tions of green-house plants divided into two or three divisions, 

 according to their relative degrees of hardness, and each division 

 wintered in a department suited for them ; and if greater atten- 

 tion were paid to the cultivation of the hardier species already 

 in the country, and means used for the introduction of new 

 plants, or re-introduction of such as have been lost in the coun^ 

 try, that require only protection from frost, our plant collections 

 would not be so meagre and limited as they hi general are. The 

 green-houso, properly so called, should be stocked with the 

 more rare or tender species, and probably one or two speci- 

 mens of such as are doubtful, to prevent their loss during 

 severe winters. The plant pit should be filled with those that 

 are a deorcc hardier, and the cold frame, or turf pit, with the 



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