AND HORTICULTURIST. 



withheld water and removed the plant into a 

 grapery at rest, giving it only sufficient water to 

 keep the foliage from wilting; at the same time 

 the flower spikes kept lengthening until the 1st 

 of February, when fire-heat is applied to the 

 grape vines ; then it pushed along and is now in 

 flower. The color of the flower is light laven- '■ 

 der, beautifully veined and penciled with rich j 

 purple, and borne on racemes from the end of | 

 each shoot, the number of flowers being in ac- 

 cordance with the strength of the shoot. A large | 

 plant, well flowered, must be a beautiful object; j 

 it is very easily propagated ; young wood roots 1 

 freely in a gentle bottom heat. The flowers will ! 

 be found very useful for florist's work, using the | 

 entire spike or singly. 



STEAM HEATING. 



BY A DANE. 



Having in the last number of the Gardener's 

 Monthly been reading about steam heating in 

 greenhouses, I take the liberty to state the fol- 

 lowing : The last winter I was engaged in a nur- 

 sery in Berlin, Germany, where all the houses, 

 eight in all, were heated by steam, though in an 

 entirely different way from that described in 

 your magazine. I feel inclined to call it "steam 

 and hot water apparatus," as it was the steam 

 that warmed the water. 



The steam boiler was lying in a little house 

 built for it ; from this a pipe, two inches in di- 

 ameter, went through all the houses at one side, 

 and back at the other./ In each house there were 

 below the shelves "reservoirs" or tanks made 

 of thin iron plates, furnished with a lid and hold- 

 ing about twelve big cans of water. From the 

 mentioned pipe went a small one (half an inch 

 in diameter), provided with a tap at the base, 

 down in each reservoir, some inches below the 

 surface of the water. 



When the steam was got up in the boiler the 

 tap to the main pipe was opened, and directly 

 after the taps on the small pipes, which operated 

 so that the steam went down in the reservoirs, 

 and in a short time made the water boiling ; the 

 steam w^as now turned off, and owing to the 

 quantity of water, the reservoir kept itself warm 

 for a long time. As a matter of course, it is not 

 necessary to heat all the reservoirs, as it depends 

 on the weather. 



The house, which was 32 feet long, 16 feet 

 broad and 13 feet high, was heated by ten reser- 

 voirs, and kept at 65° in winter, while a cold 



house of the same size was heated by five reser- 

 voirs. 



As I am told the temperature often goes down 

 in Germany to 2(P below zero, I suppose that 

 nothing would interfere against the successful 

 use of the same system of heating here. The 

 nurseryman told me it was the most economical, 

 convenient and practical way of heating he ever 

 saw; it required but little attention, as the fire 

 was only kept up one or three hours in the 

 morning and night, according to the weather. 

 In the propagating house was a long tank, made 

 of bricks, covered with slates, and in this way 

 formed the propagating bed. The steam was 

 led down in this tank by three pipes, as it held 

 a large quantity of water, which gave a splendid 

 and steady bottom heat. 



I hope you will understand the construction of 

 this system ; I am not able to explain mj-self 

 more evident in the English language, as I am a 

 native of Denmark. 



SHY FLOWERING PLANTS. 



BY D F. W., NASHVILLE, TENN. 



In the February number of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, page 47, " B." asks, "How long does 

 it take seedling Geraniums to flower?" 



For several years I have grown them from 

 seed thus : In the spring I group closely in a 

 bed many of the best varieties in foliage, charac- 

 ter, colors, double, semi-double and single of old 

 plants. The seeds drop during the summer and 

 fall, many taking root. These in October being 

 from one to two inches high, showing two or 

 three leaves, are taken up and potted in very 

 small pots, using equal parts rich compost and 

 sand. They are shaded for a few days, then 

 placed close to the glass. In about six to eight 

 weeks the pots are well filled with roots. The 

 plants are re-potted in four inch crocks, using 

 rich, coarse compost, with one fifth or sixth sand 

 and plunged in a well-spent hot bed, not exceed- 

 ing eight to ten inches below the glass; the tops 

 are pinched back to make the plants symmetri- 

 cal by May or June. 



They being well grown and thoroughly "pot- 

 bound," commence blooming, but not abun- 

 dantly. As soon as they show the color and 

 character of bloom, I take cuttings from choice 

 plants and strike them. These make much finer 

 blooms than the original plant. From this 

 hybridization I get specimens of dwarf, medium 

 and strong growing plants, foliage of various 



