House and Garden 
THE GREENHOUSES FROM THE WEST 
ment of a building’s contents. The ferns have 
been found to do best in the section marked 
on the plan as “palm house,” and in the 
space back of the colonnade, primroses thrive 
in company with cyclomen, cineraria and 
other small blooming plants. There are 
few roses in the greenhouses, the space 
originally allotted them being now given 
over to vegetables. In the propagating 
house, pansies and violets are chiefly raised 
in the seed-beds. Hot frames are also 
provided for. 
The greenhouses have been constructed on 
the modern steel frame system by Messrs. 
Hitchings & Co. They are heated by hot 
water, the full efficiency of which is obtained in 
the propagating house by means of enclosing 
the front of the space under the tables by 
solid boards. The tables themselves are of 
cypress in narrow strips set with spaces be¬ 
tween them. Thus the heat from the pipes 
below is made to find its way up through the 
sandy soil of the bed upon the table. 
Upon the west of the greenhouses are lo¬ 
cated the stables, the potting house, tool 
house and yards. In the last are a compost 
bed, a stock of fuel wood and space for the 
preparation of soil. From the wagon house, 
coal teams deposit their load through a man¬ 
hole in the floor into the boiler room below. 
I his room continues under the potting and 
tool houses and is reached by means ot 
stairs from the latter. Near the boilers, 
and having the advantage ot their warmth, 
are extensive mushroom beds. In the 
man’s room are only toilets and lockers 
for the workmen, sleeping accommodation 
being unnecessary. 
Walks surrounding the buildings were de¬ 
signed with careful symmetry, but they have 
not in all cases been carried out. That the 
place has scarcely suffered trom their aban¬ 
donment can be seen in a certain forgotten 
air which surrounds the garden house illus¬ 
trated on page 92. In front of these 
houses a semi-circular lawn surrounded with 
hedges was proposed with a view, doubtless, 
of forming a composition with a superb grove 
of chestnut trees near by and enclosing a stal¬ 
wart specimen which stands out like a sen¬ 
tinel from its fellows. This lawn has not 
been constructed, nor has the flower garden, 
which is intended to balance the stable yards 
on the opposite side of the greenhouses. 
H ere the hedge which forms a boundary to 
the group was intended to be kept at the 
height of the brick walls for which it is a sub¬ 
stitute in the design. Notwithstanding this 
incompletion of minor details, the group fully 
demonstrates the good results obtainable if 
architects and greenhouse engineers could 
work in harmony. 
93 
