October 17.] THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 35 
A greenhouse presupposes, as we have seen, a certain 
degree of comfort: whether large as a mansion or small 
as the section of a room, the ideas of house and home 
are conveyed, and therefore security for the plants, 
and such comfort for their possessor, that even in winter 
he may survey them in the worst weather, with head 
erect, instead of sprawling “ on all fours” in a shallow pit, 
constructed of turf or hriclcs. Hence all greenhouses, 
to he used as such in winter, should hy means of stoves, 
flues, hot water, &o., be capable of being heated in severe 
weather, as from their height it is difficult to cover them 
effectually, so as to exclude the frost. In small places 
any regular plan of heating would be a heavy item of 
expense; but in such houses as that referred to by one 
of our correspondents, namely, nine feet hy six, much 
might he done by a, tarpaulin thrown over the house, 
with perhaps a layer of mats below it, and placing in it, 
in very severe weather, several large earthen and stone 
ware bottles filled with hot water; such gallon and two- 
gallon bottles being frequently met with in lumber re¬ 
ceptacles, testifying to a period when, among respectable 
people, orders upon their spirit merchants were more 
frequent than now—thanks so far to the teetotallers ! 
Without some mode of heating, therefore, a house for 
plants can scarcely be used as a greenhouse in winter, 
unless plants almost perfectly hardy he resorted to. The 
miserable aspect of a tender plant in such circumstances 
deprives the nursing and coddling of it of its chief in¬ 
terest. Even comparatively tender plants would be safer 
planted against a conservative wall, where they could 
be kept dry by such means as glazed calico, because the 
roots at least would be free from sudden changes, while 
nothing injures plants in a greenhouse more than having 
the soil frozen in the pots, and more especially if that 
should afterwards be suddenly thawed. In all such 
cases coverings should not only be given, hut they should 
he gradually and carefully withdrawn. 
Hence it is no such easy matter to supply, as several 
of our correspondents desire, a list of hardy and yet good 
greenhouse plants, that will not require any artificial 
heat in winter, and yet minister to the interest of the 
greenhouse then, and furnish, as one of our friends 
says—“ in the summer, at any rate, a few nice things in 
bloom.” Did I recommend things that merely required 
a little protection, I should he told—“ Oh ! we can have 
these things against our walls or in our borders in 
winter, and in groups in the flower-garden in summer; 
the greenhouse ought to have something different, or 
what is the use of it in summer.” Did I recommend 
some of the more common and hardy greenhouse plants, 
such as Acacias, Cytisus, Melaleucas, &c.—“ Oh ! I see 
and meet with those things everywhere.” Did I risk 
upon naming some of the finer Acacias, Gompholobiums, 
Eriostemons, Chorozemas, Dillwynias, Ericas, Lesche- 
naultias, Pimeleas, Zichyas, &c., then with such accom¬ 
modation, unless extraordinary care was manifested, 
complaints loud and deep would be uttered, that I had 
made them, among their friends, the target against 
which the old proverb was arrowed—“ a fool and his 
money is soon parted.” A prevalent error among many 
young in gardening is, that provided they can construct 
any thing in the shape of a greenhouse, attached either 
to their own residence or placed in a snug cosy corner 
of the garden, that there, irrespective of all care about 
heating, they ought to have plants as gay and flourishing 
in them as where all those means of success exist. 
Now, lists are fine things in their way, hut right ideas 
and principles upon such matters are far more important. 
Lists may he forgotten; ideas and principles rightly 
understood, never. Lists of suitable things to the in¬ 
experienced seem the greater boon, because more ap¬ 
parent and perceptible. Ideas ojrposed to misconception 
are still a greater good, though they work silently without 
observation, yet not less surely and powerfully. They 
are like the continuous drops of water that wear away, 
almost without observation, the hardest rocks. Error 
is most surely conquered, not so much hy boisterous 
opposition, as by the gentle insinuations of truth. 
Now, in all such greenhouses with no means of heat¬ 
ing them—and as covering from frost must be a very 
awkward affair, endangering the breakage of glass when 
effected, and ruinous to most greenhouse plants if neg¬ 
lected—we should recommend, first, that by November, 
the most valuable plants should be removed and stored 
in turf or brick pits, where covering of any amount may 
easily be given them, and then the house may either be 
cleaned out and left empty until March, or kept green 
by hybrid Rhododendrons, Cytisuses, and late flowering I 
Chrysanthemums. The house would act thus as a 
growing house and show house for nine months in the 
year. Or, secondly, consent to forego the ideas of neat¬ 
ness for several months in winter; and, especially in 
frosty weather, set all your plants on the floor of the 
house, and by means of hoops, throw mats and other 
covering upon them to your satisfaction. All, except 
the tenderest of greenhouse plants, may thus be kept, 
and in some respects more safely than in cold pits, 
because when long covered up they will not be so ex¬ 
posed to damp, and all the covering will always be dry, 
owing to the glass roof above; and whenever the sun 
striking upon that roof raises the temperature within a 
few degrees above the freezing point, then the covering 
may be removed, if it was only for an hour, or less. 
As neatness is always desirable—as economy is the order 
of the day, and as even turf pits cannot be raised for 
nothing—I would, thirdly, recommend all our friends 
who have small greenhouses, and no means of heating 
them, to make the same house answer as greenhouse in 
summer, and a cold pit, or something better than a cold 
pit in winter; because the plants will not only be pre¬ 
served, but, unless in the severest weather, easily ex¬ 
amined, while neatness will not be interfered with. 
“And how effect all this?” In an extremely simple 
manner; but not the less important on that account; 
because every thing that is truly great, is also truly 
simple. The most of these small houses are in the shape 
of an oblong square; one of our friend’s houses—whose 
case is now under consideration—is merely nine feet by 
six feet. Many, however, may be a few feet longer, and, 
what is more important, a few feet wider, because then 
there would be more room. We shall suppose that in 
these houses there is a stage for showing off the plants 
in summer; the shelves supported upon sloping rafters, 
and ranging lengthwise from end to end of the house; 
not the most artistical, but perhaps the most useful plan 
in such small houses. Then, if a lean-to, which is most 
generally the case, you have the back wall as the back 
alike of your greenhouse and pit; supposing that the 
ends of your house are partly of glass, then a few inches 
from it you must have ends made of one-inch hoard, of 
the same width, and to rise to the same height, back and 
front, as the width and height of your stage, with one or 
several pieces, according as your house is short or long, 
wide enough to rise to the top of your stage in front; 
you have thus the skeleton of a cold pit—front, ends, and 
back, all of which, with the exception of the latter, may 
be removed in spring, and stored until another season. 
The shelves being fixed with screws, could he taken 
off in a few minutes, and then the supports of the shelves 
would act as the rafters to your pit. If you had any 
spare sashes which you used for cucumbers in spring, 
it would be well so to place the rafters that the sashes 
would go between them, being supported there by fillets 
fastened to the side of the rafters. This system would 
be very useful if you wished to propagate verbenas, 
petunias, &c., for the flower beds, as one of our friends 
proposes doing in one of these unheated houses. The 
plants being placed beneath on the floor, or, if room 
