HOT-HOUSE. 
the cryptogamous plants is more difficult, 
on account of the greater quantity of mois- 
ture which they contain, and the greater 
delicacy of their texture, 
HOT house. This convenience is pro- 
ductive of many articles at the tables of the 
rich and luxurious, and may be said to con- 
stitute the chief pride of many gardeners, 
and indeed of many persons in the highest 
circles of society. Illiberal persons are, 
however, prone to decry those productions 
which do not ordinarily enter within their 
own use and consumption, and it is not 
unusual to hear many execrations uttered 
against hot-houses, temples, &c. and other 
edifices which ornament the gardens and 
pleasure grounds of the affluent, under the 
idea that the money so expended is thrown 
away. But when we consider how many 
families are maintained by the labour re- 
quired, either in manufacturing, or in ap- 
propriating the several materials, we cer- 
tainly may consider hot-houses in particidar 
as claiming an exemption from such indis- 
criminate censure. 
In truth, hot-houses are highly useful; 
they not only serve to give a stimulus to 
common gardeners, of whom many affect to 
vie in early productions, but they serve as 
the receptacles for those exotics which could 
not be reared, nor even preserved, were 
it not for the similarity thus artificially pro- 
duced with their native climates. We have 
various instances of the naturalization of 
foreign shrubs, &c. which in time become 
nearly as hardy as our indigenous plants of 
the tender class ; but which could never 
have been propagated, if exposed to the 
severity of our winter months. 
The scite of a hot-house is extremely im- 
portant, as on this much will depend. A 
south-south west aspect is to be preferred, 
as greatly inducive to economy during the 
summer time, which, in some seasons are 
warm enough to obviate the necessity for 
many jsxpences that in an unsettled year 
become indispensable ; this, in places where 
fuel is scarce, and consequently dear, is a 
matter of serious consideration. 
The best plan for a hot-house we consider 
to be a parallelogram, of whatever length 
may be thought proper ; the front wall to 
be about a foot high, so as to rise above 
the level of the adjacent surface in such 
manner as may exclude heavy rain, &c. and 
to bring the plants to such a level as may 
give them a full exposure to the sun. On 
the front wall a perpendicular glass frame, 
of about two feet and a half, should be 
raised, so that its upper ledge should stand 
at full three feet and a half above the ground. 
This is necessary for the purpose of allow- 
ing the sliding frames to be drawn out on 
occasion, and to give height within for the 
gardener’s operations. The breadth of the 
interior ought not to exceed fourteen feet, 
and the back wall should be high enough to 
give the top, or sliding frames, an angle of 
thirty-five degrees from the horizon. The 
tan-binns should be excavated in a diago- 
nal manner; shallow in front, but at their 
back to the depth of six feet, and divided 
off into compartments, so that each portion, 
say six feet square, might be supplied as 
occasion should demand, with fresh tan, 
without causing the adjoining parts to be 
disturbed, or, as is too often the case, to 
fall in. 
The surface of the tan-binns should par- 
tially correspond with the angle made by 
the upper glass frames, or at least it should 
stand at an angle of full twenty degrees 
from the horizon; so that the plants should 
not lay on a flat bed, but rise like a flight 
of steps towards the back of the tan-binns. 
By this means, when the excavation, which 
in this mode need scarcely be a foot in 
depth, is filled with tan, it will give various 
degrees of heat, according to the depth, in 
each part respectively, as it may be more 
or less removed from the front of the hot- 
house. We, however, rather recommend 
that only half should consist of hot-beds, 
and that the front part be built up with 
benches of masonry, perfectly air tight, 
through which flues should be made, where- 
by such pots as might stand on them, would 
receive a degree of warmth sufficient to 
preserve many of the more hardy exotics. 
We likewise are disposed to consider sliding 
frames to be far inferior, both in regard to 
their safety, and as relating to the closeness 
of shutting, to such as are made to rise on 
hinges at their upper ends, and which hav- 
ing projecting battens to throw off the wet 
into the centre of their supporting rafters 
, (which should be grooved to receive the 
wet, and to conduct it downwards) effectu- 
ally exclude exterior moisture, and, by 
being listed within, debar the access of 
frost. We have, in Plate VII. Miscel. given 
some idea of this arrangement, wherein 
fig. 1 shows the internal section of the 
hot-house, with the binns for receiving the 
tan ; also the angles of the surfaces, both of 
the tan-binns and of the glass frames ; the 
latter being divided into two or more parts, 
may be opened at pleasure, by means of 
