Posted: May 05, 2000 at 09:13:26: by shadowfax
From the Renaissance onwards it became fashionable to grow oranges and other citrus fruits in conservatories, orangeries etc in the otherwise unsuitable northern European climate. Surviving examples of interest are those at Paris and Versailles.I also remember reading somewhere (but can't remember where), that water melons were grown in Lonon in the 16th century. Quite unthinkable today! Of course the quantities produced must have been quite small and expensive, and thus reserved exclusively for the tables of the upper classes. I am no botanist, but suppose that if you can grow water melons and oranges, maybe you can grow tea. The world's finest tea comes from Darjeeling which is way up in the Indian Himalayas and not exactly a tropical climate. I think the Hobbits were quite capable of building glasshouses. They were good farmers and gardeners, and had plate-glass windows (or so all illustartions inkluding Tolkien's own would have us believe)
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