THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
493 
September 20. 
12 Sand on the floor of flue, inside, to prevent the slate at 
its bottom from cracking by the heat, near the furnace. 
13 Sash-bar for the lean-to; the upper jutting-out-part 
being glazed ; there is an opening all the length, to 
admit air, and to exclude all but very driving wet. 
Width of the house, inside, ten feet six inches. 
Ditto lean-to, six-feet. 
Door, two feet six inches in width; height, five feet 
six inches, 
The furnace is at the end opposite the door. 
The sashes on the roof open easily, by pulling them 
down by the hand, inside, and are pushed up from the 
outside, by means of a stout rod, with a notch in the 
end of it; the operator standing in front of the lean-to 
house. 
The paving that covers the flue forms the path of the 
house. 
The flue is a few inches below the ground level. I 
forgot to say, that 
14 represents a narrow sunk path in each of the lean- 
to’s, for examining, watering, &c. 
The length of the house is forty-two feet, and the 
whole, house and lean-to, is glazed with sixteen-ounce 
sheet glass, in squares seven by five. Our readers may 
easily form an idea of the quantity of plants, in small 
pots, such a house, with its twelve shelves, could hold. 
It will at once he seen that large pots would not stand 
on these shelves. When I saw the house early in the 
spring, it was crammed full of nice healthy plants of 
Geraniums, Fuchsias, Heliotropes, Verbenas, &c., chiefly 
in 48 and 00-sized pots, and it would have been difficult, 
in the same space, to have kept an equal number, 
equally healthy, by any other combination, that would 
also have admitted of an equally economical super¬ 
intendence. 
As many will now he thinking of building for saving 
their pet plants, a few thoughts may he worth noting, 
where economy must be kept in view. 
1. A pit, or house, in which artificial heat may be 
used, when wanted, is always more desirable than one 
unheated. Many simple modes of heating have already 
been adverted to. 
2. A pit, or house, however low the roof, intended for 
cultivating, or keeping plants, will always yield most 
satisfaction, and provide best for the plants well-being, 
when there is a pathway, however narrow, inside. It 
was shown, sometime ago, how this could be doue with 
pits of a moderate height, by having a trench dug down 
at the back for a path, either with or without a hipped 
roofed over the path, and that roof opaque or glass; 
and, in the later case, if the path-way is deep enough 
no room need be lost, as a shelf for small plants might 
be secured over head above thp path. 
3. Where growing of plants, pleasure of examining 
them, and economy in all the arrangements, must form 
first matters of import—then, instead of having two 
ranges of pits, however short, it would be advisable to 
place the lights end-to-end at the apex of a roof, and the 
other ends resting on side walls, as in this Hitchin 
house. It will also be observed, that in such a hipped- 
roofed house there is no occasion for the space over the 
pathway being open; as, provided the flue, or pathway, 
was a foot deeper, or the apex of the roof a foot higher, 
a broad shelf might be suspended over the path ; or a 
late Vine, or other desirable twiner or climber, grown 
there. 
4. There is nothing new in advocating earth plat¬ 
forms or stages for such houses to the readers of this 
work. I have known cases in which great dampings 
and discouragements to gardening enthusiasm have 
been accomplished, because, when everything was 
arranged satisfactorily as to the price of constructing a 
neat little house similar to the above, the idea of plat¬ 
forms and stages was entirely overlooked, and the 
additional expense they created gave a souring influence 
to the whole affair. In most cases, an earth platform, 
with a brick-wall to keep it up, would have cost less by 
much in the first instance, and might be supposed to last 
a life-time, or as long as the house would stand to¬ 
gether, and, if either vitrified on the outside, or painted 
with good anti-corrosive, the walls would always be nice 
and clean. Then, on the other hand, independently 
of the trellis and shelves weariug out, and the frequent 
brushings and washings they will require to keep them 
clean and neat, and the repeated paintings, to efface the 
effects of the scrubbings, all coming as so many drains 
to the pocket; there is one fact more, of much import¬ 
ance to the amateur, who must leave his plants for 
many hours at a time, namely, that these shelves will 
retain no moisture, unless there are saucers beneath the 
pot, and that, in inexperienced hands, will at times be 
apt to make a marsh plant of one that requires very 
different treatment. When plants stand on a bed 
sufficiently porous to allow extra moisture to drain 
away, it will be a long time before a plant in such 
circumstances will greatly suffer from drought, owing 
