OCTOBER. 225 



REVIEW. 



The Gar den- Frame. A pamphlet of 38 pages. Groombridge and 



Sons. 



This is both a useful and cheap treatise, the object of which is to 

 instruct amateurs, as plainly and intelligently as possible, how to 

 form, how to use, and how to make the most of this useful and 

 excellent horticultural appliance. The dimensions of the three-light 

 frame, which is that recommended, are generally 10 feet long and 

 4 feet wide, 15 inches deep at the back, and sloping to 7 inches deep 

 at the front ; but it is advised to alter the depth from 15 to 18 inches 

 at the back, and from 7 to 10 inches in the front, as these will better 

 suit the objects in view. This frame is to be employed for forcing 

 Cucumbers on hot dung, raising vegetable and flower seeds, propa- 

 gating plants from cuttings, and lastly, to be used as a hybernatory; 

 and as winter is fast approaching us, when all of us will be put to 

 our wits' end where to store away our summer pets, we have thought 

 it well to extract the following chapter, not less for the purpose of 

 affording instruction on this point, than for shewing the manner in 

 which the several matters which the treatise contains are managed. 



" We now come," says our author, " to the last aspect in which 

 to consider the garden-frame; and it will be allowed that as a winter 

 protection for the plants of which we have been treating, it may be 

 regarded as an important feature in the amateur's garden. There is 

 nothing more trying to the patience of the horticulturist, than to see 

 all his labour lost, or his hopes disappointed. After providing, by 

 much care and attention, a fine stock of healthy plants, which are to 

 adorn the flower-beds or balconies during the following summer, his 

 first consideration is — what is to be done with them ? how are they 

 to be kept ? and where shall they be safe from the hard frosts of 

 winter and the keen cutting winds of spring } Here, again, the gar- 

 den-frame supplies these desiderata. 



*' The simplest and best mode, except when a pit heated with hot 

 water is available, is to dig a pit aboirt 8 inches deep, of the exact 

 dimensions of the frame. At each corner of this pit, and in the 

 centre of the south and north sides, have a pier of bricks rising to the 

 level of the ground ; on these piers allow the frame to rest. The 

 whole depth of this pit with the frame on it will be 26 inches at the 

 back, and 1 8 at the front ; these heights will aff^ord sufficient room 

 for plants of a large size. To render the pit perfectly secure from 

 the influence of frost, there should be some clean straw placed against 

 the outside of the frame the whole of its depth, and it should be as 

 close as it will possibly lay ; against this straw throw up a mound 

 of earth, sloping it away from the top of the frame; this will form a 

 complete protection from the influence of the frost. Let us now 

 direct our attention to the management of the plants in this pit which 

 we have constructed. About the month of October it will be neces- 



NEW SERIES. VOL. II. NO. XXII. U 



