ECONOMY IN FLORICULTURE. 
258 
that a pyramid, a cone, or any other elevated figure, presents a far greater super- 
ficial area than a flat or plane surface of the same dimensions. Hence, a hill might 
be planted so as to take many more plants at the same distance from each other 
at the base, than a level space of the same horizontal dimensions. 
Perhaps a knowledge of this fact, and probably other kinds of convenience, 
likewise, as well as improved effect, has led cultivators to adopt the sorts of stage, 
with an ascending series of steps, in common use for greenhouse plants. Certain 
it is, however, that these stages are susceptible of great improvement in regard to 
the number of plants they contain ; for, in most instances, they are carried up far 
less perpendicularly than they might be ; and, as we have just hinted, the steeper 
the ascent, the greater the amount of surface it will offer. 
Two fundamental rules of economy in the erection of plant-houses are, that 
they should neither be very high, nor very broad. The formation of the stages in 
the manner we have mentioned will be in accordance with these. Whether the 
house be span-roofed, or of the more ordinary lean-to form, and whether the stages 
be simply parallel or divided into pyramids, cones, &c, with the walks winding 
between them, the bottom of the stage should be nearly on a level with the floor, 
and the top as near as possible to the roof. The intermediate steps should be so 
perpendicular that each one may overhang the other about half an inch or an inch, 
and be only broad enough to let the pots stand on them with safety. In this way, 
a very great saving of space will be realized, as well in the breadth of the house, 
as in the increased number of plants it will contain. 
The opposition that might be raised to such a plan on account of the liability 
that the drainage from one row of plants might fall into the pots of the row 
beneath it, is not worthy of a moment's thought, because it can be so easily 
obviated. By placing a small strip of wood along the front of each shelf of the 
stage, so as to form a ledge that would prevent the water from falling over the 
front, and by puttying and painting the junction between this and the shelf, in 
order to make it water-tight, all the fluid that escapes from the pots would be 
thrown off at the back of the shelf, where, of course, it could not fall on any of the 
lowermost plants. Indeed, this is a practice which ought invariably to be pursued, 
whatever may be the nature or construction of the stage employed. 
Another point in making stages for plant-houses deserves attention in regard 
to economy as well as to the benefit of the plants. This is the formation of the 
shelves of longitudinal bars of wood, with open spaces between them, instead of 
cutting them in one plain piece. By the former method, the water passes off far 
more freely, and less wood is required. 
A further saving of room will be occasioned if the shelves of the stage be placed 
rather nearer to each other than they commonly are. Where there are broad 
openings between the shelves of a stage, the under part of it becomes visible ; and 
it is a point of taste to let as little as possible of anything be seen but the leaves 
and flowers of the plants. 
