107 
GARDEN AUCHITECTURE. 
Throughout the whole history of gardening, no point presents a more anoma- 
lous aspect than the form and style of structures for the conservation of plants. 
From the time at which the massive gloomy erections in which greenhouse species 
were first imprisoned prevailed, to the period when the graceful curvilinear metallic 
roofs were originated, a total want of taste, or inappreciation of the objects desired 
to be attained, — extravagant notions of economy, and ignorance or neglect of the 
true principles of plant-culture — seem to have been little less than universal. 
That this comprehensive condemnation may not stand unsupported, we shall 
strive to show what constituted the most palpable and glaring errors of past epochs, 
and to what causes they were chiefly due. It will not be necessary, in such an 
attempt, to go far back into the olden times, and bring under review the conserva- 
tories and orangeries of the last century ; since our purpose is to attack the evil in 
its more recent shapes, leaving the venerable specimens of ancient architecture to 
that unsparing and impartial hand which will not fail, ere long, to obliterate all 
standing traces of their existence. 
Thickly as the face of our country is studded with greenhouses, and conserva- 
tories, and other similar manifestations of a refined taste, we regret to observe that 
the enlightenment of which they may be supposed to be the indication is very 
rarely apparent in their outline ; or, where architectural beauty and congruity are 
realized, they are generally at the expense of something that essentially conduces to 
the health of the plants. The proprietor who would be laudably emulous in securing 
proper proportions, and style, and finish for his mansion, and providing for the con- 
venience, and comfort, and health of its inmates, will nevertheless think his garden 
beautified, rather than defaced, by structures that evince as utter a disregard of archi- 
tectural rules as of vegetable physiology. Nay, if these same abortions be an appanage 
to the house, and their character as remote as the antipodes from that observed in 
the principal features of the latter, they are still not only tolerated, but viewed with 
pleasure, as if it were not practicable to render them conformable to the prevailing- 
style. 
In noticing the faults complained of according to the order of their magnitude, 
the first would assuredly be a lack of any prominent characteristic or order, of con- 
gruity, of proportion, of chaste, real, and appropriate ornament ; or, where any or 
most of these are aimed at, there will usually be found an insufiicient adaptation to 
the purposes of the culturist, and a heaviness, darkness, and inelegance which are 
nearly as objectionable as the defects previously mentioned. What, for example, 
can be more unsightly than a plant-house of considerable elevation, with a plain, 
perpendicular back wall, and a long glass front, sloping in one direction to the other 
wall that supports it ? And where, again, will the eye of taste or the scientific cul- 
tivator meet with greater ofience than in the heavy erections, half stone or brick. 
