FRUIT HOUSES.] HORTICULTURE 223 Three or four rows of pipes will be required on each side, according to the heat proposed to be maintained. In their interior fittings plant stores require more care than greenhouses, which are much drier, and in which consequently the staging does not so soon decay. In stoves the tables should always be of slate or stone, and the supports of iron ; slate is now most commonly used. This should be covered with a layer of 2 or 3 inches of some coarse gritty material, such as pounded spar, or the shell sand obtained on the sea-coast, on which the pots are to stand ; its use is to absorb moisture and gradually give it out for the benefit of the plants. The pathways should be paved, or made of conc-rete and cement, and the surface should be gently roimded so that the water required for evaporation may drain to the sides while the centre is sufficiently dry to walk upon ; they should also have brick or stone edgings to prevent the water so applied soak ing away at the sides and thus being wasted. The greenhouses, if large and ornamental, should be contiguous to the flower garden or pleasure ground; but if of the simple character employed only for growing decorative plants, it is better to associate them with similar houses set apart for other purposes, in an enclosed portion of the grounds contiguous to the potting sheds, where fuel and other materials required can be conveniently stored, and where all the untidiness of the workshops may be masked. For this reason it is a very convenient plan to place side by side a series of small span-roofed houses for growing plants, where they can be connected by a glazed passage-way at the back. The glazed way may be utilized for the cultivation of plants re quiring less light than others, such as ferns, camellias, &c. ; it should communicate with the workmen s offices, which are com monly placed on the north side of the garden wall, so that potting and other cultural operations may be carried on without creating a block or confusion in the several houses. Wherever placed, it is imperative that all plant houses should have a free and abundant admission of light. 11. Fruit Houses. The principal of these are the vinery, pinery, peach house, cucumber and melon house, and orchard house. These or a portion of them, especially the vineries and peacheries, are frequently bright together into a range along the principal interior or south wall of the garden, where they are well exposed to sun and light, an ornamental plant house being sometimes introduced into the centre of the range in order to give effect to the outline of the buildings. When thus associated, the houses are usually of the lean-to class, which have the advantage of being more easily warmed and kept warm than buildings having glass on both sides, a matter of great importance for forcing purposes. The Vinery is a house devoted to the culture of the grape-vine, which is by far the most important exotic fruit cultivated in English gardens. W T hen forming part of a range a vinery would in most cases be a lean-to structure, with a sharp pitch (45-50) if intended for early forcing, and a flatter roof (40) with longer rafters if designed I- . ^x "X^. for the main or late crops. Mr A. F. Barron, a recognized authority on grape growing, recommends in the Florist ami fc^.^ Pomologist (1879, p. 37) three classes of FIG. 8. Lean-to Vinery. vineries, namely, early for the production of early or forced grapes, general-crop for all unheated grape houses, and late for producing and keeping grapes till late in the season, each requiring its own special arrangements. The following are the three forms of houses re commended by him. (1) The lean-to (fig. 8) is the simplest form, often erected against some existing wall, and the best for early forcing, being warmer on account of the shelter afforded by the back wall. In this house the principal part of the roof is a fixture, ventilation being provided for by small lifting sashes against the back wall, and by the upright front sashes being hung on a pivot so as to swing outwards on the lower side. The necessary heat is provided by four 4-inch hot-water pipes, which would perhaps be best placed if all laid side by side, while the vines are planted in front, and trained up wards under the roof. A second set of vines maybe planted against the back wall, and will thrive there until the shade of the roof becomes too dense. (2) The hipped-roofed or three-quarter span (fig. 9) is a combination of the lean-to and the span- roofed, uniting to a great degree the advantages of both, being warmer than the span and lighter than the lean-to. The heating and ventilating arrange ments are much the same as in the lean-to, only FlG 9 Hipped-Roofed Vinery. the top sashes which open are on the back slope, and therefore do not interfere so much with the vines on the front slope. In both this and the lean-to the aspect should be as nearly due south as possible. Houses of this form are excellent for gene ral purposes, and they are well adapted both for muscats, which require a high temperature, and for late-keeping grapes. (3) The span-roofed (fig. 10), the most elegant and ornamental Fro. ]0. Span-Roofed Vinery. form, is especially adapted for isolated positions ; indeed, no other form affords so much roof space for the development of the vines. The amount of light admitted being very great, these houses answer well for general purposes and for the main crop. The large amount of glass or cooling surface, however, makes it more difficult to keep up a high and regular temperature in them, and from this cause they are not so well adapted for very early or very late crops. They are best, nevertheless, when grapes and ornamental plants are grown in the same house, except, indeed, in very wet and cold districts, where, in consequence of its greater warmth, the lean-to is to be preferred. The Pinery is a house devoted to the cultivation of the pine- Pinery, apple. The pineries or pine stoves of former times were generally large lofty structures of the lean-to vinery fashion, and heated by smoke flues ; but these were superseded by build ings of more compact form, such as that of Baldwin, a noted pine grower of his day, in which the low roof was hipped, the short or northern slope being of slate, and the glazed sashes being fixtures. These were again improved by the sub- stitution of glass for slate in Flfl , L _ Sect ; on of Piuerv . the back slope, and of hot- water pipes for smoke flues as the heating medium, openings being provided at back and front, as at re, a (fig. 11), for ventilation. Such houses as these are low, and therefore are more economi cally kept at the high temperature necessary for pine growing. The best form of pinery is a low structure of this kind, but some*
what wider, so as to permit of the utilization of the front and back
