CONSERVATORY

In Horticulture, is a glazed structure, in which exotic trees and shrubs are grown in a bed or floor of soil. It is distinguished from an orangery by its having a glazed roof, while that of the latter is opaque; and from a greenhouse by the plants being planted in the free soil, and thus gro^ying up from the floor, while in the greenhouse the plants are grown in pots placed on shelves, or on a stage or series of shelves, rising one above another. Above a century ago, for example, in the time of Evelyn, the term conservatory was applied to those garden buildings now called orangeries, and in modern horticulture employed only for the preservation of exotic plants, such as orange trees, ., which are in a dormant state during winter. The greenhouse and the modern conservatory were then not in existence. They are exclusively employed for the preservation of plants which are in a growing state during winter. The largest conservatory in the world, at the present time (1841), is that erected at Chats worth in l)erbyshire, for palms and other tropical plants, which covers above an acre of ground, and is sixty feet high. There are very handsome conservatories for Cape and Australian plants at Alton Towers, and other placet. [s. 286]