December 24. 1903. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



223 



from OTium tanks can reach it. In color 

 its flowers are a distinct blue, darker 

 than in N. stellata, Berlin -rariety, which is 

 the blue of the Neapolitan violet. Tho 

 pedicels, or foot stalks, are stout and 

 support the flowers about a foot above 

 the water. The reverse of the sepals and 

 the foot stalks, too, have dark lines upon 

 them, making them quite distinct. It is 

 an American hvbrid and a most desirable 

 variety. N. "William Stone is another hy- 

 brid of America,n origin, the flowers a 

 darker shade, suffused with purple, but 

 possessing much the same features. 



HADKINSON SUPERINTENDS. 



In appointing Joseph H. Hadkinson 

 superintendent of floriculture at the 

 St. Louis World's Fair, the management 

 showed its appreciation of the splendid 

 work accomplished by Mr. Hadkinson on 

 the seventy acres of land surrounding 

 the palaces of agriculture and horticul- 

 ture. When Mr. Hadkinson joined the 

 World's Fair force he v:ls made head 

 gardener on the recommendation of 

 Frederic W. Taylor, chief of the de- 

 partments of agriculture and horticul- 

 ture. Most of his domain was a £eld of 

 barren yellow clay. In less than a year 

 he has worked wonders. There is a tix- 

 acre rose garden that even last summer 

 made a splendid show and gave but an 

 earnest of the beat ty it will present 

 when the great fair opens. 



All of the shrubbery installed by Mr. 

 Hadkinson has prospered, and every 

 flower bed has received his personal at- 

 tention and profited by his practical 

 knowledge. As superintendent of flori- 

 culture Mr. Hadkinson will be in charge 

 of all the gardens and also of the flow- 

 ers displayed in the conservatories 

 which form a part of the palace of hor- 

 ticulture. 



Mr. Hadkinson was born in Manches- 

 ter, England. When a youth his par- 

 ents emigrated to America and settled 

 in Nebraska. He had studied in the 

 botanical gardens in London, and in his 

 new home he embarked in the nursery 

 business. He gave that up to accept a 

 position as instructor in horticulture in 

 the University of Nebraska under Cliief 

 Taylor, who was then professor of agri- 

 culture at that institution. Mr. Had- 

 kinson did the gardening at the Omaha 

 exposition and had charge of Nebras- 

 ka's horticulture exhibit at the Pan- 

 American exposition at Buffalo. But 

 at the World's Fair he has accomplished 

 his greatest work. ■ 



GREENHOUSE HEATING. 



The following is a paper written by 

 Wm. Scott, of Buffalo, and read before 

 the St. Louis Florists' Club at its meet- 

 ing December 10. Mr. Scott's experi- 

 ence with hot water heating extends over 

 forty-five years and he may fairly be said 

 to have a thorough knowledge of the 

 practical, every-day side of his subject : 



Supposed improvements have been 

 made in methods of greenhouse heating 

 by hot water within the last twenty years, 

 but actually after trying many different 

 systems the writer can discover nothing 

 new and no improvement on the plan and 

 system used fifty years ago and which 

 will be found most plainly and naturally 

 explained in that splendid work, ' ' Hood 

 on Hot Water," published in London, 

 England, some fifty years ago. 



Remember that the circulation of water 

 when heated in a so-called "boiler" is a 



■^^^ ^jjKrK W 



Joseph H. Hadkinson. 



(Superintendent of Floriculture, St. Louis World's Pair.) 



natural law. It is the law of gravita- 

 tion. The water in the return pipe being- 

 heavier, or, as scientists would say, of 

 greater specific gravity, it presses down 

 on the warm water in the boiler, which 

 flows out at the flow pipe. So the greater 

 the perpendicular drop in the return pipe, 

 the faster will be the circulation. A 

 perpendicular drop of six feet will do. 

 but ten feet would be better. It should 

 be needless to say that where the con- 

 trary exists and there is only a foot or so 

 of fall in the return pipe, the circulation 

 is slow and a great amount of fuel has to 

 be burned. The faster the circulation 

 the less time is there for the water in 

 the heating pipes to get cool and the less 

 fuel it takes to warm the water as it 

 passes through the boiler. 



tip to about twenty-five years ago noth- 

 ing but the 4-inch cast iron pipe was used 

 for heating greenhouses and Hitchings 

 & Co., of New York, were pre-eminently 

 the leading firm in that business, and 

 scarcely any improvement on their system 

 has yet occurred. Then some twenty 

 years ago we began to hear of ' ' overhead 

 heating," "uphill plan," "down hill 

 system, " " hot water under pressure, ' ' 

 ' ' the use of small pipes, ' ' etc. 



We will dismiss the overhead system 

 by merely saying that it is utterly wrong 

 in every particular. Any pipe higher on 

 the walls than where the sash bar 

 springs from is wasted. I do not say 

 that pipes should necessarily be beneath 

 a bench, for in carnation and rose grow- 

 ing I think it is of no benefit, rather a 

 detriment, but they should be low enough 



on the side walls or paths to create a free 

 circulation of heat among the plants. 

 With soft-wooded plants in pots it is a 

 great advantage to have the heating pipes 

 beneath the benches. 



The ' ' down hill system, ' ' or that sys- 

 tem in which the flow pipe rises to its 

 highest point over the boiler and from 

 there gradually drops through the heat- 

 ing pipes to the boiler, is wrong. You 

 are diminishing your perpendicular drop 

 at the boiler, which is your motive power. 

 The ' ' up hill system. ' ' if that means a 

 rise of two feet in 100, and a correspond- 

 ing drop in the returns, is also wrong, 

 because the water at ninety feet from 

 the boiler is cooler than where it enters 

 the house, and has a tendency to weigh 

 back on the warm water. 



"Hot water under pressure" is not 

 generally understood. I have a small 

 system where the only vent for expansion 

 is the city water main, which in our city 

 is under a pressure of thirty-five pounds 

 to the square inch. When the water ex- 

 pands with heat it must go back against 

 this pressure. This works most admir- 

 ably, there being two pet cocks at the 

 two highest points of the system, to let 

 out any air that may have accumulated 

 there, but after the first week of firing 

 we find no necessity of opening these pet 

 cocks oftener than once a week. 



Good as this system is, it is not hot 

 water under pressure. As I understand 

 the true pressure system, you fill the 

 system and begin to fire ; there is no ex- 

 pansion tank or relief of any kind except 

 a safety valve. There being no space foi 



