Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 101, May, 1876Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 101, May, 1876
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
The manufacture of a torrid climate on so large a scale will strike
the visitor as one of the most curious triumphs of ingenuity in the
whole exposition. Moisture is an essential only second in importance
to heat. The two must be associated to create the normal atmosphere of
most of the vegetation of the central zone. Art, in securing that end,
reverses the process of Nature. The heat here is supplied from below
and moisture from above, thus transposing the sun and the swamp. In
summer, indeed, the sun of our locality, reinforced by glass, will as
a rule furnish an ample supply of warmth. Very frequently it will be
in excess, and allow the imprisoned strangers the luxury of all the
fresh air they can crave. Our summer climate is in this way more
favorable than that of Kew, which in turn has the advantage in winter.
The inferior amount of light throughout the year and the long nights
of winter in a high latitude again operate against the English
horticulturists, and leave, altogether, a balance in our favor which
ought to make the leading American conservatory the most successful in
the world.
Standing by the marble fountain in the great hall, with its attendant
vases and statuary, the visitor will not suspect that the pavement
beneath his feet is underlaid by four miles of iron pipe four inches
in diameter and weighing nearly three hundred tons. Through this
immense arterial and venous system circulates the life-blood of
the plants, hot water being the vehicle of warmth in winter. These
invisible streams will flow when the brooks at the foot of the hill
are sealed by frost and the plash of the open-air fountains is heard
no longer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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