THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[January, 



as from above. The stately aspect of the plant 

 together with the striking variegation, renders it 

 one of the handsomest of stove variegated plants. 



Dinner Table Decorations.— A correspon- 

 dent of the London yournal of Horticulture s^Lys: 

 •• Above all avoid overcrowding. In general few 

 plants are wanted at the dinner table ; at one for 

 four persons, I should put two Crotons, Chelsoni 

 or interruptus aureus, one on each side of the cen- 

 trepiece, or two Asparagus plumosus canus, and 

 two Rivina laevis, one at each end to correspond. 

 Their red fruits show up well, but do not let them 

 stop in more than one night, or their berries may 

 fall. The plants near the centrepiece should be 6 

 inches lower than the centrepiece, the end plants 

 to be half the height of the centrepiece. As many 

 small glasses as there are guests should be ar- 

 ranged, each with a buttonhole." 



The Taste of an African Prince. — It is said 

 that Cetewayo, the great African chief who was 

 taken prisoner and carried to England, thought 

 no flower of the many thousands cultivated in 

 English gardens, exceeded in beauty the Salvia 

 patens. It is undoubtedly one of the most beauti- 

 ful flowers known. The roots are tuberous like 

 the Dahlia and it is easily preserved through the 

 winter, and yet its handsome blue flowers are sel- 

 dom seen in these days of cut flowers ; the fact that 

 it drops from its cup almost as soon as gathered 

 is perhaps against its popularity. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Steam Heating. — "Gardener," Chicago, Ills., 

 asks : " Why is it, if steam is so superior to hot 

 water heating, that none of the old gardeners 

 knew of it. They seem to have run on hot water 

 and never thought of steam ?" 



Our correspondent is mistaken. Steam heating 

 was used in Great Britain before hot water was 

 thought of; and this was introduced as an im- 

 provement on steam. We believe the first hot 

 water apparatus was put up by a Mr. Bacon, of 

 Aberamen in Glamorganshire, in 1822. A Mr. 

 Wm. Atkinson was the inventor. Steam had been 

 used before. 



Tar on Hot Water Pipes. ^The following 

 letter and reply have been kindly handed to us by 

 Mr. Peter Henderson : 



POTTSVIM K, Dcccmboi 5:li, 1SS4. 



" Dear Sir ; I built four greenhouses last sum- 

 mer and put 2000 ft. of pipe in for heating, that 

 was dipped in gas or coal tar. It is injuring my 



roses and I would like to have your idea as to how 

 to remedy it without taking out pipe. I am at 

 present changing the water in the pipes which has 

 been in since September. There is a great deal of 

 gas-poison passing out with the water. An early 

 answer will very much oblige, 



Yours truly, J. M. M." 



"J. M. M.," you have been unfortunate in 

 making the same blunder that is made by some 

 florists, again and again each year, in the face of 

 repeated warnings that have been given in the 

 Gardeners' Monthly and other magazines, 

 about the dangers of using coal or gas tar on the 

 iron pipes used for hot water or steam in green- 

 houses. The changing of the water as you pro- 

 pose will not abate the mischief; nothing whatever 

 will do any good except to take down the pipes 

 and burn every part of them where the gas tar is. 

 They must be heated nearly to a red heat so as to 

 expel the gas, as the tar penetrates right through 

 the grain of the cast iron. If you do not take out 

 the pipes and burn them you will find that your 

 roses will remain leafless as long as you continue 

 to fire — do it at once or you will throw your coal 

 and labor away the entire winter. I receive two or 

 three such letters as yours every year — some of 

 them have tried scraping the iron and have used 

 chemicals with the hope of neutralizing the gas, 

 but all without effect — nothing will expel it but 

 heat. Peter Henderson. 



Diseases in Roses. — "J. G. H." New York, 

 writes: " I would like to have you inform me 

 ' through the MoNTHLy what kind of a disease it is 

 that has got into the roots of my plants. The rest 

 of the roots are the same as the piece I send you. 

 Will you please inform me how I can prevent it? I 

 am losing all my plants with this disease. And 

 can you tell me what kind of disease this is that 

 has got into my roses? The leaves at first have 

 from one to four black spots on them, then they 

 turn yellow and drop off; the roots seem to be all 

 healthy enough. You can see by the leaves I send 

 you how they look. Will you please tell me how 

 I can prevent this disease from going any farther. 

 It started first in the La France and is going 

 through the whole house." 



[The roses are infested by a root aphis, and also 

 by the larvae of some small insect which bore into 

 and make their home in the roots in much the 

 same manner as their larger fellow creatures do in 

 the stems of apples and quinces. After they have 

 become so abundant as they evidently are on 

 these, we know of no remedy but to take out the 

 whole lot, liave entirely new earth, and begin 



