162 THE FLORIST. 



all seedlings before sending them out. Besides the sorts now 

 figured, Messrs. Henderson inform us they have obtained a 

 further batch of exceedingly pretty hybrids — of a distinct habit 

 and colour — which will in due time find their way to the public. 

 The treatment recommended by Mr. Atkins for his hybrid suits 

 equally the last named kinds. 



GLASS WALLS versus BRICK WALLS. 



The removal of the duty from glass was one of the greatest boons 

 that could possibly have been conferred on horticulture ; its reduced 

 price at once placed it within the reach of thousands who before could 

 not afford it ; and it allowed those who then used it to increase it to 

 almost any extent. Gardeners began to employ it in ways and for 

 purposes for which its price had hitherto been an obstacle, and among 

 other things we soon had orchard houses and glass walls introduced to 

 our notice. These I have no wish to disparage in the following remarks ; 

 they are useful things enough in their way, and to those who do not 

 look entirely to profit they may prove subjects of much interest. 



With regard to the invention of structures, &c., required in horti- 

 culture, fi'om a hot-water boiler to a glass wall, the great mistake 

 consists in this — that the admirers and fi'iends of the invention promise 

 and say a great deal more for them than they ever perform, a remark 

 especially applicable to orchard houses and glass walls, which, as I have 

 already said, may be in their way useful adjuncts to gardening ; but if 

 we consider the end for which they are designed, all has been said 

 for them that can be said. What are they but mere expedients ? 



In your April number Mr. Ewing, alluding to his glass wall, says, 

 ** Notwithstanding its advantages, I find both gardeners and amateurs 

 who seriously discuss, and tenaciously adhere to, the antiquated plan of 

 fruit tree protection by canvas-rolls and Fir branches." Now beheving 

 that this plan, which Mr. Ewing designates antiquated, will survive and 

 continue to be practised long afi;er his glass walls will be numbered with 

 the things that were, I venture to defend it. 



I believe I appreciate the value of glass in the cultivation of firuits 

 and vegetables as fiilly as most people ; but I would use it for advan- 

 tageous and profitable ends — for the production of Pines, Grapes, Melons, 

 Cucumbers, and for the cultivation of early Peaches, and Nectarines, 

 Apricots, Plums, Figs, &c., and for growth of winter vegetables. I 

 would have, instead of the paltry-looking ranges of lean-to houses, 

 which are in almost every garden, one building of architectural pre- 

 tensions, di^dded into as many compartments as the kinds of fruits, &c., 

 intended to be gro\TO. I would have it heated by a perfectly effective 

 apparatus, and I would have, as far as human ingenuity could invent, 

 the means of perfect ventilation. 



I now come to my subject ; and in the first place I may mention 

 that this is the sixth season successively in which I have had an 

 excellent crop of wall fruit, including Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, 



