ADVANTAGES OF GROWING GREENHOUSE PLANTS IN FRAMES. 
203 
obscure departments of the pleasure-grounds, be objects of delight rather than 
disgust ; whereas, in the greenhouse the plants, by their nearness to the roof, 
would be too distant from the walk to be advantageously seen, and their pots, with 
those upon which they are raised, would be most displeasingly conspicuous. 
On a recent call at the gardens of Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart., at Cheam, 
we saw, under the skilful care of Mr. Green, a frame appropriated to Heaths, and 
apparently managed precisely on the principles we have here laid down. In the 
first place, the four corners of the frame were equally raised on bricks, to about a 
foot from the surface of the ground ; thus leaving a large open space for the admis- 
sion of air beneath. Where wood is abundant, four posts of any kind, about four or 
six inches in diameter, on which the bark is retained for the sake of its rusticity, may 
be driven into the ground at the proper points, and they will form a substitute for 
bricks in all respects preferable. Next, the plants were elevated on inverted pots 
till the tips of their branches nearly reached the top of the frame. And lastly, 
the extremities of the lateral shoots of each plant were from four to six inches from 
all the others by which it was surrounded. By keeping the ground moist in the 
inside of the frame, a most refreshing humidity is maintained about the plants in 
the hottest weather ; and the symmetry of their form combines with the intense 
verdure of the foliage to impart to them an air of beauty very triflingly remote, 
and that solely as regards size, from the ultimatum of perfection. 
With some slight alterations, this mode of procedure is applicable to all the 
plants that are ever grown in a greenhouse. And as there are few cultivators of 
these plants who do not possess frames, these being also very generally unemployed 
during the summer months, no inconvenience will be created by the plan we have 
proposed ; but, contrariwise, a saving of trouble, on account of frames requiring 
less attention, and being altogether easier to manage, — and what is of still greater 
importance, the attachment of a very considerable additional value to the plants, — 
will undoubtedly attend the application of a system having the preceding hints for 
its basis. 
Such plants as Cockscombs, Balsams, and Amaranths, not only thrive best with, 
but actually require frame culture. That humid heat, constant proximity to the 
glass, and frequent shifting, in which they delight, cannot so well be supplied and 
attended to in any other situation. Frames, indeed, should be regarded as summer 
nurseries for the greenhouse, to which last structure no plant should be introduced 
that has not gone through a regular preparation in the first. When this method 
is brought more generally into vogue, then alone may we expect to see both plants 
and houses exhibiting those attractions of which the major part of them are so 
susceptible. 
