November 24, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTTJEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



4fl9. 



believe, is the absorption of moisture. The pores, or stomata, 

 also absorb moisture, and thus a rootless leaf is enabled to 

 retain its verdure until a callosity is formed and roots are 

 emitted. A leaf of the Cineraria, Begonia, or Vine, taken in 

 a flagging state and placed in a close, moist, and shaded at- 

 mosphere, regains the fulness of its pai-ts through its sto- 

 mata while its leafstalk is deprived of the power of absorption. 

 Moreover, we have a Calceolaria cutting and we will allow 

 it to flag. If in that state the bottom of the stem is placed 

 in a vessel containing oD, the leaves being moistened, and 

 if it is then placed on moist sand with a bell-glass over it in 

 a shaded place, the leaves not only absorb moisture suffi- 

 cient to fill their empty cells, but that of the stem as well. 

 — G. Abbey. 



WINTEEING BEDDING PLANTS. 



The following is the plan I prefer to many : — 



For instance, the Geraniums : I put three cvittings into 

 a 60-sized pot, in a compost of leaf mould, loam, and a 

 sprinkling of silver sand, the pots being previously well 

 di-ained. They are then placed in brick pits with lights 

 over them. After they are struck they are folly exposed to 

 all the light and aii' jjossible ; but in case of heavy rains 

 the lights ai-e then replaced. I may add that they occupy 

 the same pots through the winter, and are stored away in 

 the gi'eenhouse as closely as wiU permit a current of air pass- 

 ing freely between them. The supply of water required is 

 very limited indeed until the days lengthen, when they wlQ 

 require a somewhat larger supply. About the middle of 

 March I dig out aU the Celery-ta'enches that are requii-ed for 

 the season, and, these being 4 feet wide, in the bottom I 

 place about 4 inches of leaf mould and road sand mixed 

 together. I then fork it in lightly with a little of the com- 

 mon garden soO for the reception of the stock of Gei-aniimis, 

 which are planted about 9 inches fi-om plant to plant in the 

 rows, the rows being about the same distance asimder. 

 Prior to dividing them I give them a thorough good soaking 

 of water, after which we can perform the operation with- 

 out the least injury or check to either of the plants. They 

 are sheltered with straw covers, such as are used at I^ut- 

 teridge Bury, and so often described by Mi-. Fish. 



After they are all turned out there are about two thousand 

 pots at command, which are then all washed clean prepara- 

 tory to the potting of such as Verbenas, Lobelias, and a 

 great variety of the more tender kinds of plants. The 

 Calceolarias are never troubled with either pots or artificial 

 heat : they are treated precisely the same as we have done 

 them before at Putteridge Bury under the directions of Mr. 

 Fish, and we shall be greatly sui'prised if we lose a dozen 

 out of two thousand plants. 



The Calceolarias are planted out in the ti-enches as above 

 mentioned for Geraniums. They both do equally well, and 

 by the time you want to plant them out they ai'e fine 

 stocky plants. With the aid of a trowel or small fork we 

 can lift them with as much ball as we lite ; and after plant- 

 ing them in their respective quarters, the soil being pre- 

 viously well stirred, and finally a good watering, not a leaf 

 of either would be seen to flag. — J. B. C. P. 



Grapes Smkivklling when in Bloom. — Having seen an 

 article in your Journal of March 24th about Grapes shrivel- 

 ling up when in bloom, I wish to state that I witnessed the 

 same in a large late vinery, of which I had charge at a some- 

 what later date, although in certain parts of the house 

 they set weU. Thus, one cane at the end of the house, 

 which was brought down at the top to nearly a level posi- 

 tion, sets its bunches well throughout its length. Also, in 

 other parts of the house where the shoots happened to grow 

 up raider rafters shaded from the sun, the bunches set and 

 did well ; but in this case it was near the top of the house 

 that they did so. In my opinion the weU-doing of the 

 Grapes depends upon the position of the canes at their 

 blooming season, or even before it, and after the Grapes 

 are set. The Vines above-mentioned were planted in the 

 usual way in a border in front of the vineries, the border 

 being rich and moist. — D. Pbatt, Gardener to the Hon. D. 

 Phmkei. 



HOLLYHOCK FLOWEES BECOME BLACK. 



YouB correspondent, "An Old Lady's," DaUiag would 

 have looked well with my black Hollyhocks. You do not 

 believe that her DaliUas became white, and you may be 

 equally incredulous that we have about fifty Hollyhocks, 

 fine double flowers of all colours, which last yeai- turned 

 black. I let them remain, as I thought they might return 

 to then' true colours this year, but again they were all black. 

 Every one that has seen them remai-ks that the like was 

 never known before. — A StrsscEiBEK feoji the Commencb- 



MENT. 



[We never before heard of such a wholesale change of 

 colour. Certainly we have heard that clayey loam, blue 

 vitriol, and iron filings have sometimes changed Hydrangeas 

 blue ; and also that Norwood loam, on account of its large 

 amount of ii-on, had the same effect. Granting that you 

 have not been deceived, the complete change from many 

 colours to one must depend on something in the soil. It 

 would save a deal of uncertain speculation in many oases 

 if oui- coirespondents would state particulai'ly the nature 

 of their soil and subsoil when advice about plants is asked 

 for. Pray teU us the nature of the soil in which your Holly- 

 hocks have played such fantastic tricks.] 



GARDEN BOILEES. 



If I had not had the experience of above ten years' ex- 

 periments amongst the various modes of heating garden 

 stmctures, I should not now venture to pen a few words 

 upon a subject so important to my brother amateurs. 



I have tried various kinds of boOers and various modes of 

 heating them; and as I am also the proprietor of a large estab- 

 lishment where I have steam boUers and hot-water-heating 

 apparatus employed in my business, I may venture to give 

 the result of my experience, and, if needful, warn your 

 readers against some useless outlay. My principal reasotl 

 for writing at present is that I see a disposition to employ 

 a metihod of heating water wliich has the tempting attraction 

 of being apparently the most efficacious. I say apparently, 

 because I know that it is deceirtive, not intentionally so, 

 but nevertheless both deceptive and exjiensive. I allude to 

 what are called tubular boilers. There is no novelty in the 

 idea of heating water in tubes, and it is equally certain 

 that when quite newly erected it is the most economical 

 method of conveying heat to water, but the apparent eco- 

 nomy soon vanishes unless extraordinary mechanical ar- 

 rangements ai-e provided for perpetually keeping the tubes 

 free from soot which is well known to be a most perfect 

 nonconductor of heat. Many, very many years ago, various 

 ingenious methods of heating the water which is used in. 

 large steam boilers were tried, such as passing the pipes 

 through the furnace itself (a fallacy, for it was robbing 

 Peter to pay Paul) — another plan was to use the waste heat 

 between the boiler and the chimney, to heat the water in a 

 pipe or pipes fixed in the flue, which is exactly the principle 

 of the present fashionable tubular boilers. This method 

 was found to act admu'ably for a short period, but as soon 

 as the pipes became coated with soot, the water a<;tually 

 became cooler instead of hotter, though it passed in the 

 pipes down 40 or 50 feet of a fiery flue: consequently 

 this system was abandoned, until a clever Mr. Green dis- 

 covered and patented a method of working by mechanical 

 agency a set of sweeping-brushes or scrapers, which are 

 perpetually traversing up and down a set of tubes placed in 

 a flue perpendiculai-ly, exactly like the tubular boUers, and 

 by this means keeping them free fi-om soot. It is only by 

 the perpetual cleaning that these pipes can be kept hot ; if 

 the sweeping machine stops, the pipes soon become cold. 

 Tour readers will see that the same result must inevitably 

 take place with their tubular boilers. At the outset the 

 new boiler does wonders. It is watched at flrst by both 

 master and man, but after a while both wUl have cause to 

 express their disappointment because they cannot make the 

 fire heat the pipes as it did at first, or at any rate without an 

 enormous consumption of fuel, which only succeeds because 

 it manages to touch some small part fi-ee of sooty deposit. 

 Now, remember that I do not dispute that tubes are the 

 most economical mode of imparting heat to water, but to 

 do so they require to be kept perfectly clean; and how 



