November 12, 1868. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTICUIiTUKE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



355 



the Bpan-roof." This " span-roof " was a greenbouse I had 

 just finished. Everythinp; belonginf; to it had been planned by 

 myself after much consultation with many friends fkilled in 

 horticulture, and I felt very proud of it, thinking I had built a 

 very perfect little house at a moderate cost. I particularly 

 rejoiced in the flue, which went up the centre of the house and 

 returned over itself, thus forming a neat pathway, while the 

 heating apparatus was nearly hidden from sight, and conse- 

 quently took up no valuable room in my little " place." About 

 two thousand cutthiRS of relargoniums struck in boxes were 

 placed in this house ; and as it had been cold and cloudy all 

 day I rather expected a frost at night, and liad given .John 

 directions to light a lire. This John was a young man of 

 eighteen or nineteen, and had only just come to me. I did 

 not like to be very round with him on so short an acquaintance, 

 but I asked him rather sharply why he had not come to tell 

 me sooner. 



His reply was, " Please sir, I heard 'em say Mr. Tom was 

 down from London, and I did not like to trouble you, for I 

 thought I could make the fire go ; but I have lighted it ever so 

 many times, sir, and it wo'n't." 



I said, " I don't think you've tried the right way, for old 

 Walker put a fire in the house several nights before yon came." 

 (But " old Walker," who managed my garden when I happened 

 to have no regular man, had told mo to my great chagrin that 

 " there seemed to be no draw at all in that new-fangled flue, 

 and I had better have it altered before winter, or I should be 

 certain to have the frost in the house and have all my plants 

 killed.") John replied, " I have tried all I know, eir, and it 

 wo'n't burn." 



I said, "What sort of a night is it? Have yon any dry 

 sticks?" John answered that it looked lik«ly for rAia; but 

 might clear oil and freeze when the moon got «p. He had 

 burnt all his dry sticks and shavings, and had not one lefti 



This was a nuisance, but John was already a favourite with 

 the women of the establishment, and to my surprise thehonse- 

 maid offered part of her stock of firewood. Armed with this 

 and a shovelful of redhot cinders from the kitchen fire, we 

 marched to the greenhouse and tried again to light a fire. As 

 1 went down into the firehole John told me to be careful, for 

 the fire " plopped back ;" and so it did, nearly singeing me 

 badly, and filling the pit with flame and smoke. But it was 

 of no use ; the fire would not burn, and soon died out as before. 

 We gave it up for that night, and I directed John to have a 

 great quantity of wood dried as soon as possible in the morning, 

 and we would begin early and have a day at it if necee.sary. 

 I went to bed, but not to sleep, for I was very anxious about 

 my plants, and got up many times in the night to look out of 

 the window. Fortunately it did not freeze, and towards morn-' 

 ing began to rain steadily and heavily. ' ■■ ■ ' ■■■ 



Well, then, after breakfast next morning I set off with my 

 brother to attack the flue, and John having provided a tre- 

 mendous lot of dry firewood, we commenced operations. I 

 tried every dodge that I could possibly think of, but the kind- 

 ling was all done before I could raise a fire. I felt beaten with 

 my own invention, and having sent John to the wheelwright's 

 shop for " a few more shavings," I turned to my brother and 

 asked him how it was. I had bragged rather largely of my 

 house and the skilful way in which the flue was built, and 

 I saw he smiled when he replied, " I think you are like a great 

 many more I have heard of ; you have contrived a very won- 

 derful machine, but it is quite beyond your power to work it. 

 Neither you nor your man knows anything at all about what 

 you are trying to do. What will you give me to put you both 

 right?" 



"Anything you like," said I; "but I am afraid we shall 

 have to get the flue altered." 



" I think not," said my brother ; " but we shall see. You 

 fetch an armful of dry straw from the stable while I crack up 

 some of this coal." 



Putting on John's slop my brother set to work lustily, and 

 I brought him some dry straw. He opened a small soot-door 

 at the bottom of the chimney, and put in a wisp of straw and 

 another larger wisp in the furnace, took out a match and lit a 

 piece of paper, with which he set fire to tlie straw in the chim- 

 ney, and when that was fairly going he shut up the soot-door 

 and lighted the straw in the furnace below. How it roared 

 away to our great satisfaction, and when the straw had caught 

 fire all over he threw on lightly a shovelful of slack, closed the 

 top door of the furnace, and we left it about half an hour. 

 When we returned it was all in a glow. My brother pushed 

 the fire all back, and put on a lot of coal in front, and closed 



both doors of the furnace, leaving a little draught on in the 

 bottom door. This he did because the day was wet and foggy, 

 but on a bright day or night I find the fire burns away quite 

 fast enough without leaving any air on there at all. 



I have no trouble now, and often light all my other green- 

 house fires from this furnace, because I can so easily and so 

 quickly obtain a good stock of fire there. If any of your readers 

 are troubled with a flue which does not draw well, let them 

 put a small door at the bottom of the upright chimney, and 

 burn a wisp of straw there when they light the fire in the 

 furnace. They will soon have fire enough. 



I may add that this plan has been adopted in our parish 

 church with Mitchell's patent hypocaust system of heating, and 

 answers admirably. When this method of heating our church 

 was first adopted the fires were very refractory in dull weather ; 

 and although it is said, " Where there is smoke there is fire," it 

 was mnch more common for us to see a church full of smoke 

 than to feel any good effects of a fire. Kniis arons cltaiuir tout 

 cela ,■ and wet or dry, wind north or south, our sexton can 

 always ensure us good fires and a warm church free from smoke 

 afiy cold Stmda;f-in winter. — A. B. L. 



VAEIEaATED ZONAL PELARGONIUMS. 



HAvme proifaised in my last article on bedding Pelargoniums 

 to send yon some further remarks on the Variegated section of 

 Zonal Pelargoniums, I do bo now, not as the result of a par- 

 ticular set of trial beds, but as tho result of general personal 

 observation, in my own garden, in my friends' gardens, or in the 

 public gardens which I have seen during the last two years. 

 One diliic^ilty in treating of the subject, is to separate the 

 varieties property into their different sections ; and without en- 

 deavouring to lay down any very fixed rules, I shall divide 

 them— Ist, into the G-old-edged and Gold Sells, including both 

 Tricolor and Bicolor. 2nd, Silver-edged, Tricolor and Bicolor. 

 Srd, Bron?;e-!ioned. 



To begin then writh the Gold-edged section, we will take tho 

 Tricolors first,- of which Mrs. Pollock is the type. Their names 

 Bow are legion, and many of them differ only by the slightest 

 shade, either in breadth of zone, or habit of growth, or colour 

 of the leaf-margin, fcc, and one of the great difficulties 

 which we ha,ve nt present, and which I foresee looms still 

 more heavily in the future, is to reduce the number of different 

 sorts, and to do away with all those which are not boiiiX fide 

 improvements on existing varieties. 



Many of tbsbest of the Tricolors, in point of colour, as Mrs. 

 Allen, Lucy Grieve, itc, will only do as pot plants, and there 

 ■flr« very few as yot in my opinion, which surpass Mrs. Pollock 

 as beddere. Those which I think can be safely recommended 

 are Lady Cullum, Sophia Dumaresque, Sophia Cusack, Countess 

 of Tyrconnel, Edwinia Fitzpatriok, and Sunset. The first three 

 are, if anything, an improvement on Mrs. Pollock. The Coun- 

 tess of Tyrconnel is not easily distinguished from Sophia Du- 

 maresque, and both have rather an upright habit of growth. 

 Sophia Dumaresque has a good vigorous habit, but I think 

 both for pot plants and bedding purposes there is not one better 

 than Lady Cullum, the breadth of the dark zone giving a very 

 fine contrast to the yellow belting, and the flame colour in my 

 opinion being brighter than in any other variety.- 



There are several others of which I have only seen a few 

 plants either at exhibitions or in nursery gardens. &c., and of 

 these. Smith's (of Dulwicb) Sunray, Ketaliator, Coronet, De- 

 fiance, and Souvenir de Sir Joseph Paxton ; and Carter's Prince 

 and Princess of Wales, Ettie Beale, and l>r. Livingstone, seem 

 to be very promising. Especially so is Eetaliator, which was 

 shown in fine colour at Leicester, and seems to have a vigorous 

 habit. Ettie Beale, though fiue in colouring, will, I am afraid, 

 be only a pot plant. Miss Watson has, in my opinion, been 

 much overrated. 



Here I may make a general remark, that the effect of Tricolor 

 Pelargoniums for bedding is by no means commensurate with 

 the beauty of the plants as individual specimens. Their effect 

 in the distance is not so good as the older plain Gold-edged 

 kinds, and I believe that many of our finest and most effective 

 pot plants will eventually prove but second-rate bedders. The 

 fact is, the contrasts of colouring are contained in the leaves 

 themselves. Gold, red, green, and dark brown, are so mixed 

 together that it is difficult to place another band of colour 

 alongside, which contrasts well with them, and large masses of 

 Mrs. Pollock, and Pelargoniums of its type, are by no means 

 effective in beds. The proper place for these varieties in the 



