2043. Greenhouses appear to have been first erected in the seventeenth century; and the first of which we have any record was that erected by Solomon de Caus, at Heidelberg, about 1619, to shelter some orange trees planted in the free ground them. It consisted merely of a movable wooden frame, with a wooden span roof, and wooden shutters on the sides (fig. 593.). This frame was put up at Michaelmas and taken down at Easter every year; but it was found so troublesome, that we find Solomon de Caus, in his Account of Heidelberg, observes that he had advised the king to remove it, and to supply its place by a construction of freestone. (See p. 140.)
