HORTICULTURAL BUILDINGS. 
227 
enough, and well ventilated, it may be of any 
form or fashion, hut suited to the situation in 
which it is placed. It should, however., have 
an entrance from the house ; it would not be 
the worse for being entered from the best room 
in the house. It should have folding doors, 
glass to the ground, that it may be viewed 
in perfection, without the necessity of even 
opening the doors. It should be lofty and 
airy, and if it be glass all round to within 
half-a-dozen bricks of the floor, so much the 
better. This may have some plants in the 
ground, but care must be taken that it be not 
crowded, nor its capacity for being dressed out 
with flowers got to perfection elsewhere, 
be at all trenched upon. For this reason 
the subjects actually planted in the ground 
within it, should be only such as are handsome 
all the year round ; and such, also, as require 
no extraordinary heat at any one time, so as 
to injure the others, or to render it necessary 
to curtail the supply of flowers, or to keep the 
house in other respects bare, while any par- 
ticular management is applied. The Camellia, 
therefore, has always been justly esteemed a 
favourite. It is at all times a beautiful ever- 
green, and for several months it is a splendid 
object, from its bloom. Botany Bay plants of 
many kinds are favourites. Hoveas are beau- 
tiful objects, and thrive well; and their rich 
purple blossoms form a noble contrast to 
the red, white, and striped kinds of the Ca- 
mellia; several of the Acacias are also splendid 
objects, and their golden flowers fill up the 
picture for the spring. None of these require 
any treatment but that which can be given 
without detriment to other plants and flowers. 
Rhododendrons and Azaleas of the finer kinds 
add also to the effect, and grow into noble 
specimens, but these things must not be 
crowded together. To grow handsome they 
must be a long distance apart, for a veiy few 
years would make them outgrow the place, 
however large, unless room is given for them 
to grow handsome and bushy. The heat which 
is necessary in frosty weather should be given 
round the outer boundary; and it is best given 
under the path, for it is then most effective, 
in consequence of the frost affecting the out- 
side first and most, and consequently being 
best counteracted by the heat being given off 
near it. The heat ascends directly up the side, 
then up the roof, and while it is at the top 
it cools, and comes down among the plants 
which occupy the main body of the house, and 
makes its way to the side to be heated again, 
and to go its round as before. The most 
simple form of building is a ridge roof and 
upright sides. The sides should be at least ten, 
and may be fourteen or fifteen feet high ; the 
sides may be formed of part sashes and part 
doors, or all sashes, so as to throw up the 
lower or pull down the upper halves ; and 
there may be at the bottom, inside, two feet 
allowed between the outer edge of the path 
and the sides, for the purpose of being able to 
stand a row of plants. The roof should be 
formed of ordinary lights, the top row on both 
sides being made to slide down. Tall plants 
may be in the middle, and short ones nearer the 
side; so that when the house is dressed out 
with plants in pots, it should present a sort of 
bank of flowers and foliage. There may be 
pillars to support a few very choice climbers, 
as well as help support the roof; and pedestals, 
tripods, and other ornaments, to hold fancy 
pots and any choice plants; and the fancy may 
rove in all manner of ways, for the conser- 
vatory is essentially a fancy building. The 
bloom must be kept up by means of forcing 
all the plants that will bear it, from season to 
season ; but it must be kept dry and cool, 
though perfectly free from frost, for this would 
destroy the choice plants, if once fairly ad- 
mitted. There are no dimensions that can 
be fairly given, because, from one of twenty 
feet by fifteen, to one of fifty feet by twenty, 
or a hundred feet by fifty, all will be equally 
applicable so far as the name goes, and its 
proper dimensions must depend on the place 
it is to fill. 
The Orchideous House. — This build- 
ing need not differ materially from the 
stove, but provision must be made for con- 
siderable moisture, great heat, and good 
shading. Orchideous plants are mostly para- 
sites, growing on the branches or trunks of 
trees, where there is sure to be shade; and, as 
they are inhabitants of hot countries, the fact of 
their flourishing in more heat, more shade, 
and more moisture, than plants which grow in 
the earth and in the open country, is not 
surprising. The various modes of supplying 
moisture are, first, by syringing frequently; 
next, by watering the iron pipes or flues in 
the house, to raise a steam ; third, by troughs 
of water on the iron pipes kept filled with 
water, and constantly giving off steam ; lastly, 
by open tanks, by means of which the house 
itself is warmed. The tank system has been 
made a great fuss about of late, and half-a- 
dozen conjurors are fancying themselves in- 
ventors. It has, however, been many years 
in use, and as every change in the mode of 
building, or the mode of heating, causes a 
certain number or fidgetty, changeable people 
to lay out money and alter their plans, how- 
ever well they may be answering, there will 
assuredly be constant changes as long as people 
can invent them — like quack doctors with 
their medicines — and find people to give cer- 
tificates of their efficacy. The most annoying 
thing about all these changes is, that a good 
practical gardener, with a house built any how, 
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