PLANTS WITH CLASS ROOFS. 



223 



This is the common or normal form of the greenhouse, when it is placed 

 against a wall, or the side or end of a dwelling-house, and facing the south 

 or some point between south-east and south-west ; but much more elegant 

 forms, of the curvilineal or ridge and furrow kind (483 and 484), may be 

 adopted, and where the expense of fire-heat is not an object, it may face 

 the east or west, or be constructed of glass on all sides. For placing against 

 a w^all in a flower-garden we should prefer a curvilineal structure, with ends 

 of the same kind, and an architectural entrance, either in the back wall, as 

 in fig. 129, p. 190, or in front ; but against a dwelling-house, and on a 

 small scale, we should recommend the ridge and furrow construction, as 

 from the ease with which the roof may be partially or wholly concealed, it is 

 the most easily rendered architectural. 



517. The orangery is an architectural building, more like a living-room 

 than a plant-structure, with large windows and nan-ow piers in front and at 

 the ends, and with an opaque roof. It is used for preserving orange-trees 

 and other large plants which are in a dormant state during winter ; and the 

 power of heating is about the same as that for the greenhouse ; but, from the 

 roof being opaque, less extent of flue or hot- water pipe is required. Plant- 

 structures of this description are chiefly wanted in large establishments ; but 

 as architectural appendages to a house they may sometimes be advantageously 

 introduced in small villas, the area of the orangery being used in the summer 

 time, when the orange-trees and other plants usually kept in it are set in 

 the open garden, as a place for prolonging the beauty of plants in bloom, 

 and for other purposes. 



518. The conservatory differs from the orangery and the greenhouse in 

 being more lofty and arcliitectural, and in having the plants growing in a 

 bed of soil which forms the floor of the house. As the plants in a conserva- 

 tory are generally kept growing through the winter, a power of heating is 

 required greater than that of the orangery; and when it is joined to a 

 dwelling-house, and is to be frequently walked in by the inmates, greater 

 than that of a greenhouse. The temperature during the night should not 

 be under 45°, nor need it be raised higher during bright sunshine than 55° 

 or 60°. The forms, and other particulars relative to the construction and 

 adaptation of conservatories, have already been given in the Suburban Archi- 

 tect and Landscape Gardener. 



519. Botanic stoves are of various kinds ; but with respect to temperature 

 and moisture they may be reduced to the dry stove, the damp stove, and the 

 intermediate or bark stove. The first requii-es abundance of light and a 

 power of heating from zero to 60° in the winter season, and is chiefly used 

 for growing succulents ; the second requires less intensity of light, but a 

 power of heating equal to 80° in the winter season above the external air ; 

 for although such will seldom be required, yet it is better to have too much 

 than too little heating power. In the damp stove there must also be a power of 

 saturating the atmosphere with moisture at all seasons ; as it is chiefly used 

 for growing Orchidaceous plants and ferns. The intermediate or common 

 botanic stove requires the same power of heating as the last, but more light 

 and much more space, as it is used for growing the trees and shrubs of 

 tropical climates. These are commonly kept in pots, and very frequently 

 plunged in a bark-bed, whence this kind of house, before the use of damp- 

 stoves, was called the bark-stove, to distinguish it from the dry-stove. 



520. The pine stove is a low stiaicture, always with a bark or other bed 



q2 



