HEATING CONSERVATORIES ON A SMALL SCALE. 
515 
would be suitable for it ; and if grown in a 
pot it must be allowed plenty of room, as the 
production of flowers will be scanty ; in fact, 
it is scarcely a fit plant for cultivating to 
bloom in pots, but requires a more free and 
unrestricted extension both of the roots and 
branches. 
It is for such plants as these Tacsonias, 
which are known to be of a sub-hardy 
character, that the protective walls, known as 
conservative walls, now becoming so necessary 
a feature in a garden, are especially appro- 
priate. In such a situation there is no 
doubt these plants would grow to the utmost 
perfection, and produce a succession of 
flowers from July or August until the au- 
tumnal frosts checked their further develop- 
ment. 
HEATING CONSERVATORIES ON A SMALL 
SCALE. 
Conservatories only require heat enough 
to prevent damp and frost from affecting the 
plants inside of them, and where the capacity 
of heating is too great, there is vast difficulty 
in applying the exact quantity of warmth 
required ; for it is quite clear that too much 
heat will be injurious, and to some subjects 
almost as much so as frost. It is far better to 
adapt the quantity of heat that can be applied 
to the wants of the building, and the plants in 
it, than it is to have the means of excess under 
any circumstances. For this reason, hot water 
apparatus has been found to require much less 
care than flues, and, the quantity of iron pipe 
being adapted to the space, all chance of giving 
too much heat ceases ; but there may be such 
a thing -as keeping up a heat too long, and that 
will be as fatal as if it were too great. One of 
the best contrivances we have seen a long 
time was Mr. Rivers's forcing-houses at Saw- 
bridgeworth. These were warmed by means 
of hot water, wbich was heated by a common 
Arnott stove, and conveyed all round about the 
house by means of shallow tanks ; but the 
mode of conveying the water has little or 
nothing to do with the means of heating it ; 
for some prefer tanks, others pipes, others open 
gutters. All may be right according to their 
own means of applying the water; but there 
were many objections to the common Arnott 
stoves. They were ugly, ill-formed, and very 
ill-adapted for any place of show, and, except 
when applied to the heating of water, they 
were injurious to the very air itself in the 
apartment which it heated. This has always 
been the objection, as to conservatories, where a 
very slight degree of heat is required, and, 
except in frost, none at all. It has often 
struck us as an odd thing, that whatever ugly 
pattern is started by a patentee or inventor, 
seems to .be the fixed, unalterable fashion 
during the patent ; smaller or larger than the 
original may be had, but equally ugly and 
unsightly it must be, or the public would 
never believe it was the same patent. We 
have recently seen a considerable improvement 
effected in a stove adapted for heating a con- 
servatory, a small propagating house, or an 
apartment in a dwelling-house, or even a 
hall; and some of the disadvantages of the 
common Arnott stove are got rid of, and the 
capacity of the apparatus is greatly increased, 
as may be seen by the following particulars 
supplied by the patentee : — 
" No. 1 stove will warm a room twenty feet 
square and ten feet high, thirty degrees above 
the atmosphere at the coldest known period, by 
actual experiment, — all parts of the room 
being kept close and free from draughts. No. 2 
will average twenty-five feet square, as above, 
and No, 3 thirty feet. This is an important 
improvement over all stoves, and obviates the 
objection to stoves in general for warming 
conservatories. In the first place, the ' dry- 
ness of the air' is overcome by placing on the 
top of the stove (forming an ornamental vase), 
a receptacle for water, lined with enamel, and 
producing evaporation from two quarts of 
water in the twelve hours. The slightest 
alteration of this would make it feed hot-water 
tanks or pipes, to be conveyed all over a hot- 
house. 
" Secondly, stoves of all kinds have been 
objected to, because they are apt to scorch the 
plants in their immediate vicinity. These stoves 
are prepared with pipes from the draught- 
holes or gussets, so that the space between the 
inner and outer cylinder, or case, can be filled 
with sand, breeze, brick-dust, or any other good 
non-conductor. This prevents the external case, 
which is two inches distant from the fire or 
furnace-pan, from being overheated ; and, at 
the same time, should the fire accidentally go 
out, the body of sand would keep warm many 
hours." 
The improvement is called Nettleton's Pa- 
tent Stove. Slow combustion, as in the true 
Arnott stove, is the guiding principle here ; but 
the stove is made truly ornamental, and may 
be adapted most admirably to any apartment, 
however w r ell appointed and furnished. The 
great advantage over all other stoves is the 
length of time it will burn without feeding. 
This will burn twelve hours when properly 
fed ; — enough for the longest and coldest night 
in winter. If the stove be w r anted for the 
purpose of heating water, to be conveyed 
about the premises in pipes or tanks, as in the 
case of Mr. Rivers's application of the old 
Arnott stove, all that is required is to have a 
o o 2 
