GREENHOUSE

In Gardening, a house with a roof and one or more sides of gla , for the purpose of containing plants in pots which are too tender to endure the open air the greater part of the year. The green-house, being a structure of luxury, ought to be for the most part situated near the house, in order to be enjoyed by the family in inclement weather; and, if po ible, it should be connected with the flower-garden, as being of the same character with reference to use. Its length and breadth may be varied at pleasure, but its height should never be le than that of the loftiest apartments of the house to which it belongs. The best aspect is to the south or south-east; but any aspect may be chosen, provided the roof is entirely of gla , and abundant heat is supplied by art. In green-houses facing the north, however, the more tender plants will not thrive so well in winter: more artificial heat will be required at that season; and the plants should be chiefly ever-greens, and other plants that come into flower in the summer season, and grow or flower but little during winter. In most green-houses the plants are kept in pots or boxes, and set on stages or shelves, in order that they may be near the roof, so as to receive the direct influence of the rays of light immediately on their pa ing through the gla . An orangery differs from a greenhouse in having an opaque roof, and in being chiefly devoted to plants which produce their shoots and flowers in the summer season and in the open air; and they are set in the orangery merely to preserve them through the winter. Such a structure might with more propriety be termed a conservatory'but; custom in the present day has applied this term to structures having gla roofs in which the plants are not kept in pots, but planted in the free soil, and in which a part of them are encouraged to grow and flower in the winter months. See Orangery and Conservatory. GREEN ROOM, in the Theatre, the name given to the actors' retiring room; so called, in all probability, from its being originally painted or otherwise ornamented with green. [s. 548]