Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/16

10 There is nothing so good for a stage in summer as large slates, and nothing so good in winter as open wood-work. The houses in which we keep miscellaneous plants have slate stages on each side the centre walk. When affairs are made up for the winter a substantial wood trellis is laid over the slates at a

few inches distance, to allow of a free circulation of air around and under the pots. The trellis is made in convenient lengths and consists of deal bars two and a half inches wide, three quarters of an inch thick, set one inch apart, with cross-bars to brace them together. In any case the staging must be so arranged as to bring the plants as near as possible to the glass. The subjoined diagrams represent a good and a bad way of fixing the staging.

In fig. 1 is represented one side of a low-roofed span (A), and flat staging near the glass (B). This is a good arrangement. In fig. 2 is represented one side of a steep-roofed span (A), and rising stage (B). This is a very bad arrangement. The central path being in the line A B, the plants are very conveniently placed both for seeing and getting at them, but