Jan.] THE GREEN-HOUSE. gg 
the only essentia!, that seems to be regarded, towards preserving 
the health of the plants which they are intended to protect. It is 
rare to find one that will keep plants in good health during the win- 
ter, either by reason of their situation in moist places, their want of 
a sufficiency of glasses to attract heat and admit a due quantity of 
light, or of the glasses not being constructed so as to slide up and 
down occasionally, as they ought — as well to suffer the foul air to 
be discharged as to admit fresh. Sometimes where a Green-house 
has been well considered in these points, all is confounded by the 
introduction of a mettle stove and pipes, which never can be man- 
aged so as to give, when necessary, that gradual and well regulated 
heat, which will protect the plants without injuring them; and, be- 
sides, both the stove and pipes unavoidably emit in the house a 
quantity of smoke, which seldom fails to annoy the plants. It does 
not unfrequently happen, when such a house is entrusted to the care 
of an ignorant or negligent person, that the whole collection is de- 
stroyed in one night, by excessive heat, or at least rendered of very 
little value; this is an evil which ought to be carefully guarded 
against. 
For the particular method of erecting the furnace and flues, see 
the article Hot-House, for this month; with which it agrees in 
every respect, only that one range round the house, and two along 
the back wall, will be sufficient; and that the flues may or may not 
be erected close to the walls, at pleasure. 
On whatever plan the Green-house is constructed, let the whole 
inside, both ceiling, walls and flues, be neatly finished off" with good 
plaster and white-wash, and all the wood work made with the most 
critical exactness, of good seasoned timber, particularly the doors, 
sashes and sash frames — the whole to be painted white — and let the 
bottom or floor be paved with large square paving tiles, or some 
similar materials. 
The floor of the Green-house should be raised at least twelve 
inches above the level of the ground, and higher in proportion as 
the situation is moist or springy — for damps sometimes arise dur- 
ing the winter months, which prove very pernicious to plants. 
In the Green-house should be tressels, which may be moved in 
and out, upon which rows of planks should be fixed, so as to place 
the pots or tubs of plants in regular rows one above another, where- 
by the heads of the plants may be so situated, as not to interfere 
with each Cher. The lowest row of plants, or those nearest to the 
windows, should be placed about four feet from them, that there may 
be a convenient breadth left next the glasses to walk in front, and 
the rows of plants should rise gradually from the first, in such a 
manner that the heads of the second row should be entirely advanc- 
ed above the first, the stems only being hid, and so on for the whole. 
At the back of the house there should be allowed a space of at least- 
four feet for the conveniency of watering the plants, and particular- 
ly to admit a current of air round them; there may also be narrow 
temporary open stairs of boards erected at one end, leading to a 
platform erected at the back, on a level with the. highest part of the 
M 
