THE COiNSERVATORY. 231 



means employed to keep out frost; and this 

 security may be obtained without an extravagant 

 waste of fuel, by only a rightly devised mode of 

 the distribution of that easily conducted and dis- 

 posable element, heat. 



For this power of distributing heat, we are 

 indebted to the recent improvements in metallic 

 enginery ; and the value of these discoveries 

 will in no case be of more importance than when 

 applied to the purposes of artificial horticulture. 

 Buildings, whether for the preservation of orna- 

 mental plants, or for forcing fruit, will henceforth 

 be more economically, and consequently more 

 extensively, erected than ever ; so that no person 

 of fortune, however moderate, need be destitute 

 of such gratifications. 



It is not within the scope or prescribed limits 

 of this work to give a particular description of 

 the architecture, viz. plan and elevation of a 

 conservatory ; the size and style of finishing 

 always depending on the taste, the pleasure, and 

 purposes of the proprietor. Suffice it to say, 

 that it should be sufficiently high to allow trees 



