CHA.P'TEIR IX. 
CoXSERVATORIES AND GREENHOUSES. 
Tliese are costlj' and mainly afforded onl}'- by the wealthy. As an ornament of 
architectural value, no villa is complete without them, and even the owner of 
the city mansion does not seem well salistied till he has added one of these 
elegancies to assist the look and feeling of taste. 
Usually they are quite costly, and both interior and exterior are highlj'^ decora- 
ted, and as objects of effect on the lawn, or among the shrubbery, they are worth 
all their value in their embellishment of rural art. 
Still, even the person of moderate purse, may have one not very showy, yet 
very convenient, and well adapted to this pui-pose, viz: The keeping of plants in 
larger quantities than the ordinar}'^ space of the window, or parlor garden, and 
also in a better and more successful atmosphere than that of the living room. 
It would take a volume alone to point out all technical details necessary to 
anyone about to build one. For an extensive design, the advice of a horticul- 
tural architect is indispensable, but for home purposes, a design such as any car- 
penter can erect is seen in one of our succeeding plans. 
Conservatories and green-houses are also somewbat distinct in their uses. 
The one is mainly devoted to ornamental purposes, and the exhibition of 
plants in full beauty of growth and bloom, while in the humbler green-house, 
projjagating boxes are the chief furniture used by the gardener, for the produc- 
tion and forcing of his young plants. Still either term is appropriate, and the 
term greenhouse includes both. 
Costly consei vatories are built of iron and glass, more moderate ones of wood 
and glass. In building them, due heed must be given to ventilation. If in small 
home conservatories, they are not well heated, it would be well to have heavy out 
side shutters, so as to be rolled down at night, or double window panes of glass* 
usually a flue from the furnace which warms the house will, in ir.ost lati 
tudes, give sufficient warmth, provided the furnace will keep up a uniform degree 
all night. This, after all, is not regular in large conservatories ; and then the 
only satisfactory mode of heating is by pipes of hot water from a furnace speci 
ally constructed for the purpose. 
