152 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ August 22, 1865. 



the couolusion that Golden Fleece is the best of that class. It 

 is a good grower, and the foliage is of a bright good colour. 



Mrs. Pollock has gi-own remarkably well with me. I treat it 

 as follows : — At bedding-out time I pot the plants in good rich 

 loam, with a liberal dash of good rotten manure in it, in 

 32-sized pots, without any crocks in them. I plunge the pots 

 in the beds, placing about half a foot in depth of the same soil 

 the plants have been potted in for them to rest on. The effect 

 <jf this is that the roots come through the bottoms of the pots, 

 and the plants grow as well as if they were in the bed without 

 pots, and in October I can take them up without the risk 

 of losing them. Considering the high price this Geranium 

 still commands in the market this is of great consequence to 

 me. I possess Lady Cullum, and consider it a great acquisition 

 to oiu' hst of bedding Geraniums. — CAi-CiBiA. 



BEARD'S PATENT HOTHOUSES. 



These houses possess structiiral and cultural merits of the 

 highest order. The most obvious of their structural merits 

 are strength, elegance, simplicity, completeness, uon-conduet- 

 abUity, elasticity, and durabihty. Their framework being 

 formed entirely of iron, strength and elegance are easily com- 

 bined. Their simphcity consists iu the fewness of their parts, 

 the ease with wlrich they can be handled, put up, taken down, 

 and removed from place to place. Thus the trouble, delay, and 

 expense of hothouse building are entirely avoided. They are 

 so complete in themselves that there are no extras ; ventilating 

 apparatus, water-troughing, &c., either form part of the houses 

 or are sent with them in perfect working order. What in orih- 

 nary houses forms the roof plate, becomes also the water- 

 troughing in these. The roof terminates in rather than on this 

 gutter, so that it removes the condensed water from the inside 

 of the glass as well as the external rain. The upright pillars 

 that support the front are all hollow tubes and perform the 

 office of water pipes as weU. The bottom plate may either 

 stand on a wall, or on wood, or even on a hard level surface of 

 gravel. Either way the houses are complete without any ad- 

 dition beyond the ground hue. If it is desired to raise them 

 higher, of course they can be placed upon walls in the usual 

 way. Another great merit of these houses is their uon-conduct- 

 abiUty. Iron is a rapid conductor of heat and cold. The ex- 

 treme of either is a great practical evil in hothouses. Mr. 

 Beard's mode of glazing breaks the conductive power of the iron. 

 He accomphshes this by placing two layers of asphalt, or 

 other elastic non-conducting material on tlie top of every sash- 

 bar, one above and one below the glass. An iron beading is 

 then bolted down over the whole to fix the glass in its place. 

 One of these copper or lead bolts is inserted at each point where 

 fom- panes meet, the corners of the glass being cut off to make 

 room for it. Each sash-bar or rib, when finished, thus consists 

 of an iron beading, a layer of asphalt, a thickness of glass, 

 another layer of asphalt resting on the main bar below. This 

 ingenious arrangement breaks the currents of heat or cold, pre- 

 vents them from passing thi'ough, prorides an elastic packing 

 for the glass, and earns for the houses the character of non-con- 

 ducting. 



But these houses are also elastic — not quite hke sponge or 

 Indianrubber, but they give and take in a similar manner, if 

 not to the same extent. The bulk of aU substances is changed 

 by the addition or subtraction of heat. Not only so, but every 

 substance changes in a different ratio. Wood, putty, iroii, 

 glass — for instance, would all change iu a (hfferent degree 

 when subjected to the same amount of cold. The neglect of this 

 fact has caused the most serious consequences in hothouses. 

 The evil has not been so obvious in glass houses with wood 

 frames, as wood is a sluggish conductor ; but in iron-fi-amed 

 glass houses the breakage of glass from the operation of this 

 natural law has been enormous. The usual mode of glazing is 

 to fix the glass tightly between two iron sash-bars, with putty 

 that speedily becomes almost as hard as either the glass or ii-on. 

 On a frosty night the cold contracts the iron much more rapidly 

 than it does either the glass or putty, and crack ! crack ! go the 

 squares, like the report of small fireanns all over the house. 

 Mr. Beard's mode of fixing the glass prevents all this. He leaves 

 a space of, say the eighth of an inch, between each two squares 

 as they lay side by side on the top of his level sash-bars. Every 

 square is also completely isolated from the iron above and 

 below, by the intervention of the slip of asphalt. The re- 

 moval of the corners from the squares of glass, also prevents 

 the bolts that tie them iu from touching them. The squares 



also meet each other end to end, and are not lapped. Con- 

 sequently when the iron suddenly contracts, the square moves, 

 and this elasticity, slight though it be, prevents the possibility 

 of breakage. 



Perhaps the greatest structural merit of these houses is their 

 durability. Inside and out they present an unbroken surface 

 of iron and glass to the atmosphere. There is positively nothing 

 perishable about them but the shps of asphalt, and they, pro- 

 tected as they are at most points by the iron or glass, will' 

 probably last thirty years or more. Besides, they are easily and 

 speedily replaced by new sUps. By the use of galvanised, 

 enamelled, or japanned iron, and the new mode of fixing the 

 glass, those incessant sources of worry and expense, putty and 

 paint, are entirely got rid of. The great error of most builders 

 has been that they have mixed substances of the most varied 

 degrees of dui-ability together in one and the same structure. 

 Wood, iron, putty, paint, brick, and stone, have aU been used 

 to form one house. The time such houses could stand without 

 expensive repairs, must be measured by the durability of theu' 

 most perishable parts. They involve an expense of id. or id. 

 per foot every third or fourth year, and would cost their original 

 worth in repah-s in a period varying from fifteen to thirty years, 

 according to then- quaUty. During the same period the only 

 part of Mr. Beard's houses that could possibly need renewing, 

 would be the asphalt, which in a house like that erected in the 

 Botanic Gardens, might be done for less than £1. The enamel- 

 ling or japanning process looks as hard as the iron itself, and is 

 hkely to prove almost as durable. Some objection has been 

 made to galvanised irou. It is thought by some that this grand 

 antidote to corrosion injm'es the textxu'e and lessens the dur- 

 abihty of tlie metal. I beUeve these views are mistaken, and 

 that such irou is good for two or three hves at least, and we 

 need not trouble to go beyond that. Neither does Mr-. Beard 

 confine himself to galvanised irou ; he lays his enamel on 

 common iron, and this, with the glass, which completes his 

 houses, surely lasts long enough for all human purposes. The 

 greatest possible durabihty, without repair, is a leading cha- 

 racteristic and a chief merit of these patent houses. — D. T. 

 Fish, Gardt-ner to Lady Cullum, Mardwick. — {Bunj Free Post.) 



EEINIARKS ON SOME SrECIES OF CONIFEILE. 



Eeg.vrding Pinus insignis, how much it is to be regretted 

 that so few plants of this beautiful tree now remain in this 

 country. Our limited experience once led us to beUeve that its 

 constitution was such as to resist uninjured the frost of oiu' 

 severest winters, but in this we have been greatly (Usappointed. 

 The evidence produced during 1860 and 1861 has completely 

 annihilated any hope that it will ever become a permanent tree 

 in Britain. Diu'ing these severe winters we had the misfortune 

 to lose seventy-five plants, varying iu height from 5 to 30 feet. 

 Neither the situation nor the quaUty of the soil afl'orded any 

 protection, although both were subject to considerable varia- 

 tions. Our largest tree stUl survives, but is only a mere frag- 

 ment of what it once was ; nor will it ever again acquire the 

 same proportion, as the constitution has been so severely 

 shattered. At the time to which I refer, it was 43 feet high, 

 growing on the blue lias formation, and faultless in form, 

 branched closely to the ground. In our parks and pleasuj'e 

 grounds we shall long miss the warm green colour and open 

 graceful habit of this Pinus, as there is none possessing the 

 same characteristics. The nearest apiJroximation with which 

 I am acquainted is Pinus muricata, quite as hardy as the 

 Austrian Pine ; the foliage, however, is a httle hghter in colour, 

 and the habit a Uttle more rigid, still at the distance of 10 or 

 12 yards the difi'ereuce is hardly preceptible. 



Authorities differ greatly as to the hardihood of Pinus Hart- 

 wegii, and to some extent there may be space for these broad 

 views, as we know what a large latitude different soils and 

 situations afford for the production of dissimilar conclusions. 

 The opinion usually entertained passes it off as being iar too 

 tender for om' cUmate ; this I am not prepared to endorse, as 

 we have had it growing here for a good many years, and have 

 not found it suffer in any way. 



Om- plant is growing among brashy sandstone, on a high 

 situation fully exposed to every breeze. In a young state this 

 is undoubtedly a handsome Pine, its long dark green fohage 

 di-ooping gracefully. The yoimg shoots are thickly covered 

 with leaves, but after a few years they fall off, leaving a naked 

 stem, the very reverse of ornamental. 



Some botanical authorities, without the least scruple, classify 



