Editing Greenhouse (section)

=== Roman Empire ===
Before the development of greenhouses, agricultural practices were constrained to weather conditions. According to the climatic zone of communities, people were limited to a select range of species and time of the year in which they could grow plants. Yet around 30 CE, the Roman Empire built the first recorded attempt of an artificial environment.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Crumpacker |first=Mark |date=June 27, 2019 |title=A Look Back At The Amazing History Of Greenhouses |url=https://medium.com/@MarkCrumpacker/a-look-back-at-the-amazing-history-of-greenhouses-adf301162a7b |access-date=April 4, 2023 |website=Medium}}</ref> Due to emperor [[Tiberius]]'s declining health, the royal physicians recommended that the emperor eat one cucumber a day.<ref name=":1" /> [[Cucumber]]s, however, are quite tender plants and do not grow easily year-round. Therefore, the Romans designed an artificial environment, like a greenhouse, to have cucumbers available for the emperor all year. Cucumbers were planted in wheeled carts which were put in the sun daily, then taken inside to keep them warm at night. The cucumbers were stored under frames or in cucumber houses glazed with either oiled cloth known as ''specularia'' or with sheets of [[Selenite (mineral)|selenite]] (a.k.a. ''lapis specularis''), according to the description by [[Pliny the Elder]].<ref>Note:
*Pliny the Elder with John Bostock and H. T. Riley, trans., ''Natural History'' (London, England:  Henry G. Bohn, 1856), vol. 4, book 19, chapter 23: "Vegetables of a cartilaginous nature – cucumbers.  Pepones.", [https://books.google.com/books?id=IUoMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA156 p. 156.]
*The Roman poet [[Martial]] also briefly mentions greenhouses or cold frames in:  Martial with Walter C. A. Ker, trans., ''Epigrams'' (London:  William Heinemann, 1920), vol. 2, book 8 (VIII ), no. 14 (XIV), [https://archive.org/stream/martialepigrams02martiala#page/12/mode/2up p. 13.]</ref><ref>[http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism/2004/01/07.html rogue classicism: Roman Greenhouses?] ''Cartilaginum generis extraque terram est cucumis mira voluptate Tiberio principi expetitus Nullo quippe non die contigit ei pensiles eorum hortos promoventibus in solem rotis olitoribus rursusque hibernis diebus intra specularium munimenta revocantibus''</ref>