John Claudius Loudon's classic work on greenhouse gardening is a must-read for any green-fingered enthusiast. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of horticulture, Loudon provides expert guidance on every aspect of greenhouse design, planting, and maintenance, offering readers a wealth of practical tips and advice. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

When John Ruskin attempted to disparage the Crystal Palace by referring to it as a great cucumber frame', he hit upon a truism. The Crystal Palace outdid its Victorian glasshouse contemporaries in public gardens around the world and represented the zenith of a building type that had developed spectacularly from humble horticultural roots. The Glasshouse traces the evolution of glass enclosures from the mid-seventeenth century when the desire to nurture exotic plants in a foreign and often hostile climate led to the development of the glasshouse and ingenious mechanical servicing systems, capable of creating its own artificial microclimate. Through tremendous technical advances in the early nineteenth century, large-scale constructions were built initially for private individuals and botanical societies. Towards the mid-century, with the advent of mass-production and specialist component systems, the fashioning of modular constructions, like the Crystal Palace, became possible. The Glasshouse charts the work of innovators such as Joseph Paxton and J C Loudon, and proceeds to examine their influence on the pioneers of twentieth-century design such as Paul Scheerbart and Bruno Taut.

This book takes a fresh look at childhood in Dickens' works and in Victorian science and culture more generally. It offers a new way of understanding Dickens' interest in childhood by showing how his fascination with new scientific ideas about childhood and practices of scientific inquiry shaped his narrative techniques and aesthetic imagination.

This volume is number one of a six volume collection that brings together primary sources on gardens and gardening across the long nineteenth-century. Economic expansion, empire, the growth of the middle classes and suburbia, the changing role of women and the professionalisation of gardening, alongside industrialisation and the development of leisure and mass markets were all elements that contributed to and were influenced by the evolution of gardens. It is a subject that is both global and multidisciplinary and this set provides the reader with a variety of ways in which to read gardens – through recognition of how they were conceived and experienced as they developed. Material is primarily derived from Britain, with Europe, USA, Australia, India, China and Japan also featuring, and sources include the gardening press, the broader press, government papers, book excerpts and some previously unpublished material.