60 
BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 
table or rack in front, two feet wide, and 
shelves the form of the roof at the other side 
of the path. Fig. 3. 
The conservatories may be fitted rather 
differently, for the object there is to make it 
a sort of winter garden. There should be 
a broad walk all round, laid with the finest 
Under this rack should be placed the hot water 
pipes for heating, a gutter being formed just 
below the surface to make room for them. 
This shelf or rack is to hold pots of blooming 
plants, with which it should be kept supplied. 
The ties which are necessary across the roof, 
and pillars which are usually placed at given 
distances, are so many useful supports for 
climbing plants, and the centre bed should be 
planted with much more regard to after-effect 
than any we have seen, for even that at the 
Horticultural Society is crowded with coarse, 
worthless subjects, which are damaging or 
banishing altogether much better things. A 
section of the conservatory would be some- 
thing like Fig. 4. The path round might 
be of marble or Portland stone, but it is 
better to have it like the principal gravel 
walks ; and with regard to the planting, 
the middle should have the tallest subjects, 
not at the moment they are planted, per- 
haps, but those which are naturally tallest, 
and which are sure to go up. Camellia japo- 
nica, a few of the choicest kinds ; Azalea 
indica according to their habit, the tallest in 
the middle. Nearly all the hard-wooded 
plants of the Cape will do well, but a choice 
should be made of those that will be most 
effective. 
The conservatory is used by many as a 
common greenhouse, and the plants in pots 
are crowded into it for the winter ; but the 
luxury of the conservatory is absent altogether, 
unless it is heated as a winter garden. The 
centre should be dug like a border, and some 
plants should be put out as if they were 
shrubs in the open ground ; others may be 
plunged in pots for the sake of their bloom 
while in flower, and be removed for others 
as they pass their bloom ; but the conserva- 
tory should be supplied by means of other 
houses and pits with plants coming into per- 
binding gravel. The centre should be pre- 
pared for planting, and the borders should be 
glass, which is the most neat and elegant, as 
well as lasting of all borders. As the glass of 
the windows reach to within a trifle of the 
ground, there may be a rack or shelf one foot 
wide even with the bottom of the glass. 
Fig. 4. 
fection, and removable when their beauty has 
gone. By this means it may be kept one 
mass of flowers the whole year round, and 
especially grand and imposing during the 
winter months, when the Camellia japonica, 
with its random flowers, begins lighting up the 
houses, which even without forcing, but with a 
little management, can be produced flowering 
in abundance. All other early spring subjects 
can be hastened to bloom in winter ; and sum- 
mer flowering plants can be easily forwarded 
to bloom in spring. There are some things, 
however, so beautiful in themselves in all 
their stages, that they deserve a place in the 
conservatory as permanent plants, and may 
be planted out in the centre beds to remain. 
Of these the Camellia japonica is one of the 
most striking, and three or four of the best 
kinds should be selected. The Azalea indica, 
Hovea Celsi, and a few others known to suc- 
ceed well in such situations, should be planted 
out ; and there are some few climbing plants 
worthy of a place in the very best selections. 
This, however, only explains the reason for 
some of the provisions made in a proper con- 
servatory ; our notions are that span build- 
ings should have ties, and these ties may be 
made subservient to our purposes, for climb- 
ing plants look best when allowed to run 
across the roof, as it were, and hang, as they 
will, in festoons, and their ends form complete 
receivers of flowers. The style and the build 
of these erections must depend a good deal 
on their situations, and the places adjoining : 
several of the sketches are given to show how 
they may be viewed. There is a method, too, 
of heating them, somewhat different to that 
which we have mentioned. For instance, a 
gutter may be made under the floor, if it is 
wished to conceal the pipes, or the gutter 
may be made waterproof and covered with 
iron plates, and this could be used as a tank, 
