278 THE FLOBIST AND POMOLOGIST. [December, 



plants lias been greatly admired by many persons for its fine effect. When the 

 wind blows sufficiently during sunshine to move the foliage, the Iresine appears 

 at once to put on a new charm, for it exhibits various shades of colour, which 

 are, moreover, very much heightened by those of the Pelargonium. I have been 

 so much pleased with it, that I shall grow it largely another season ; and when it 

 is within the reach of all cultivators as to price, I think it will become a 

 thoroughly popular and useful bedding plant. 



Lillesden, Haiohhurst. Thomas Eecoed. 



PORTABLE AND CONVERTIBLE GLASS SCREENS. 



FIXED Glass Screen is a house, neither more nor less. It may be wide 

 or narrow, flimsily put together, or substantially built, but its fixity con" 

 verts it into a house, and removes it from the category of temporary 

 expedients to fight the cold at its coldest, and to be cast aside when the 

 warmth of summer renders it no longer needful. 



Throughout the greater portion of these islands, our superior wall fruits do 

 as well or better, during nine or ten months of the year, without protection as 

 with it. Hence the importance of a portable shelter that can come and go at 

 the shortest notice, and be as perfect a protection as possible while it remains. 

 In this particular, nothing has yet been found to equal glass. The fact 

 of its being water-proof and air-tight, constitutes it the best wall of division 

 between the trees and the external air. The trees under cover of the glass 

 can laugh at the power of the storm, and defy its piercing force. This free out- 

 look into the sun-light, and the barrier it sets up to the ingress of wet and cold, 

 constitute the chief merits of glass as a tree-protector. The self-same qualities 

 — transparency and impenetrability — that shut out cold, let in and keep in a 

 maximum of heat. It is in these qualities that the immense superiority of glass 

 over opaque protectors is seen and felt. The latter, indeed, shut out cold in the 

 exact ratio of their thickness and conductive powers ; but they shut out the 

 heat with the self-same force, while no sooner are they wetted than they become 

 active sources of cold — ice screens, robbing trees and walls alike of all their stored- 

 up caloric, until an equilibrium of iciness is established between them. These 

 characteristics reduce the protective force of such screens as canvas, bunting, 

 straw bands, mats, nets, <fec, to the lowest minimum, while their permeability 

 opens a myriad doors of admission for the cold external air to rush through upon 

 the trees. Glass is a perfect antidote against any such loss of heat ; its lucid 

 transparency tempts every ray of light and every fleeting vibratory wave of heat 

 through from the outside to the in, and both living tree and dead brick Lay them- 

 selves out to entertain and fix the genial visitors. It is thus that the superlative 

 importance of glass screens becomes manifest. They work to warm the whole 

 of the protected area, and all it contains. It is on the surface of the glass that 

 the fiercest fight for victory takes place between heat and cold (using the terms 



