THE FLOEAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 19 



house, enjoying plenty of light with unlimited head-room. On the 

 18th of September the flower-buds were decidedly white, and were 

 beginning to elongate preparatory to expanding ; yet not one of 

 them that had no help of heat was fully expanded till the 10th of 

 October. I cut the first spike, and put it in a vase on the mantel- 

 shelf of my sitting-room, where there was a fire daily, and the 

 warmth helped out the few remaining buds at the top. As for the 

 rest, they opened well without the aid of heat up to the 23rd of 

 October, when the cold told upon them, and the flowers began to 

 rot in the bud. It may be put on record that tuberoses will not 

 open kindly at a less temperature than 60\ and a temperature of 

 70' is far better, especially to bring out their rich spicy fragrance. 

 One observation in particular deserves notice — that the small bulbs 

 of tuberoses are useless, and if you want flowers you must obtain the 

 largest bulbs that come into the market. You want hard bulbs two 

 inches thick, and weighing about two ounces each, to pay for potting. 



S. H. 



HEATING SMALL GBEENHOUSES. 



BY W. BAXTEE. 



HAVE had some experience in the matter, having built 

 myself several small plant-houses, none of which are 

 heated in what you would call a proper manner. The 

 fact is, I have been watching your writings for several 

 years, and whenever you have dropped upon plants that 

 I thought I could grow consistently with my means, I have at- 

 tempted it, and the result is a very large collection of most useful 

 and beautiful subjects that have cost me but little, most of which 

 are of the class of nearly hard// plants, such as Camellias, Cytisus, 

 Coronilla, Mitraria coccinea, Lapageria rosea, greenhouse Eerns 

 (and how nearly hardy are hundreds of these !), Deutzias, etc., etc. 

 I have had to keep frost out of my little houses by hook and by 

 crook, as the saying is ; and I will just remark upon the means 

 that I have proved effectual. I attach very great importance to 

 Musgrave's Slow Combustion Stove, made by Musgrave Brothers, 

 of High Street, Belfast. Tou called attention to it some years ago, 

 and I bought a small one for £4 10s. This I was at first inclined 

 to give up, not having, in the first instance, given it flue enough. 

 But, when I put a 3-inch iron pipe 6 feet long, with mushroom top, 

 on a 2-feet length of 4-inch drain-pipe, the drain-pipe fitting on the 

 stove, and the iron pipe fitting in the upper end of the drain-pipe, 

 the stove burnt admirably, and I can manage it so as to go eight 

 hours with coke broken to the size of walnuts. Well, this does duty 

 for a lean-to house 20 feet long by 7 feet wide, and I have a fire 

 only in frosty weather till the 1st of February, and then I keep 

 the fire going night and day till the 1st of March, and then put it 

 out for the season. Another little house is kept safe by one of 



