234 
GARDEN ARCHITECTURE. 
because, when it can be proved (as we imagine we have done) that a more beau- 
tiful house, and one very much better adapted for growing a greater number of plants 
to higher perfection, can be erected for the same, or, allowing a little more for 
ornaments, a trifling extra outlay, there can henceforth be little doubt as to which 
form the more enlightened proprietor will prefer. 
To render a span-roofed house such as that we have been delineating in some 
measure architectural, or, at any rate, not unworthy of an ornamental garden, the 
addition of four cast-iron fluted pillars, with capitals of one of the simpler orders at 
the ends, and the formation of the frame-work of the house above them into the 
outline of a pediment, (the whole being so slender as neither to give the house a 
heavy aspect, nor materially shade it,) would at once transform it into a Grecian 
edifice, and add greatly to its beauty. Or, a few neat wooden ornaments, 
judiciously placed along the top, sides, and ends, vrould cause it to assume some- 
thing of a more Gothic or Tudor character, and impart a finish which would else 
be lacking. In the effectuation of these improvements, the greatest taste will be 
requisite, and the designer must be fully imbued with the necessity of avoiding 
whatever would tend too much to obstruct the passage of light. 
Desirous of finishing our picture of what we should reckon a perfect house of 
the span-roofed kind, we may observe that everything massive or inelegant is nearly 
as much to be deprecated in the interior as on the outside. Still, the materials 
used should be substantial and enduring. To ensure both these ends, the stages 
immediately within the walls can be made of slate slabs, about one third or half an 
inch in thickness, and sustained by thin pillars or bars of iron, set in stone at one 
end, while the other end is fastened into the wall. They should be from two feet 
and a half to three feet and a half high, or about level with the top of the wall 
and the base of the side sashes. 
The walk of the house ought to surround a central compartment, which may be 
a wooden stage, a raised brick pit, or a bed, according to the nature of the plants 
to be cultivated. If they are greenhouse species, kept in a pot, a stage of ascending 
steps will be preferable ; the lowest being on a level with the opposite slate stage. 
The steps can be of the same breadth and distance from each other, up to the top, 
or with a very slight graduation in size from the bottom upwards ; as it is to be 
understood that the smallest specimens will stand on the outer stages, and those for 
the centre will not vary materially in size. For stove plants, or Orchidaceae, an 
elevated brick pit will perhaps be most suitable, as this will admit of their being 
plunged in bark, or placed on any temporary surface that may be thought most 
congenial. Where, again, the object is to obtain large specimens, the middle of the 
house should be converted into a bed, wherein they can be planted at the most 
appropriate distances. 
An interesting diversity, which we do not remember to have seen anywhere 
attempted, could be realized by expanding the principal compartment in the centre, 
and narrowing it at each end, altering the outer stages in the opposite ratio. The 
