October M, 1866. ] 



JOUEKAL OP HOllTICULTURB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



343 



at periods when no Indies were likely to visit the Btructuro for n 

 few days. 



I have a plan for steaming ray " muUiini in jHiri-o " hero after 

 this fashion. A iiortiun was cut out of the back wall, an ash- 

 pit formed on the iloor, and some bars laid to form the bottom 

 of the furnace, which is broader at the bottom than tlie top. 

 It is formed of firebricks well set in fireclay, and a six-inch- 

 Bquare opening is allowed at the top for the jiurpose of lighting 

 and feeding the lire. A flue is cut out and carried up and 

 along inside the wall, and made flush with the inside of the 

 greenhouse. An opening or recess is formed sufliciently large 

 to admit of a two-gallon saucejjan over the furnace ; above that 

 is a square oven ; and from thence, opening into the green- 

 house, a six-inch orifice is allowed. At the bottom of the oven 

 an opening 1 inches by 6 inches is made so as to be just over 

 the lid of the saucepan, which opening is made to be closed 

 or kept open by means of a damper. A loose square firebrick 

 is made to act as the lid of the furnace. Two Hues are made 

 on each side, o]iening from tlie floor at the ashpit-door, and 

 they are continued up on each side of the furnace into the 

 oven, in order that whatever burnt air finds its way there from 

 the furnace may be instantly mingled with tlie pure air rushing 

 up by the side flues to meet it, so that it cannot at any time 

 enter the house in such a state as to be prejudicial to the 

 plants. A\lien the cinders in the furnace have become of a 

 bright heat ; and the saucepan, which has been filled with 

 sewage or plain water, as may be required, and boiled already 

 on the kitchen tire, is brought to hand, the loose firebrick is 

 removed, the pot slipped into its place, and the damper which 

 closes the opening into the oven above is withdrawn. Then 

 I step into the greenhouse, and slip down a tin tube made to 

 fit into a hole in the lid of the saucepan ; and by this tube the 

 steam arising from the boiling liquid is conveyed into the 

 house, filling it with vapour for a greater or less length of time, 

 and valuing in density as may he reipured. That is all the 

 heating apparatus my greenhouse is fitted with. The furnace 

 will burn anything. I never use any fuel now but sifted 

 cinders, and I have with them kept all my plants perfectly 

 well, and with little trouble or anxiety, through three winters, 

 at a very small cost. The fire frequently continues to burn 

 for twenty-four hours without being replenished. I can com- 

 mand moist and dry air in a very short space of time ; and in 

 consequence of the hot and cool air meeting and mixing in the 

 oven, a powerful and healthy cm-rent is ever being created to 

 pour itself into the gi'eenhouse through the permanent opening. 

 It is impossible for stagnation of air to take place. The hotter 

 the furnace, of course the more violent is the rush into the 

 house, for the ascending heat sucks up and compels the cool 

 air of the flues to quicken its motion also. I do not know 

 what the little apparatus would pro\e itself capable of as a 

 healthy heating medium. I have pleasui-e in sending you a 

 section of the plan. — Upw.iBDS and Onwaeds. 



[N.B. — We can assure our readers that the system now 

 described and named has no relationship or allusion to the 

 Fenianism of Ireland ; and we only hesitated to publish the 

 name, fearing it might cast upon it an air of ridicule, for " .\s 

 absurd as Irish Fenianism " wiU hereafter be proverbial. The 

 originator of the hot-sewage syringing is a Mr. Fenu.] 



GRAFTING GERANIUJIS. 



Although these directions are in reply to the inquiiy of " A 

 Subscriber, Mnrfonl," we insert them thus prominently be- 

 cause they are of general interest. 



The most sure mode of grafting Geraniums is by approach 

 or inarching. We have had upwards of twenty kinds upon 

 one stock by this method. It is simply placing the stock near 

 the plant furnishing the scion, and bringing the branch or 

 shoot desired to the stock. Unite them at a smooth part of 

 the stock by side or tongue-grafting. Bind them together with 

 matting, and upon tliis place a little moss, and bind hghtly with 

 matting. They will be well united in six weeks ; then cut 

 away the part of the stock above the graft, and take away the 

 plant fumishmg the scion, ha\-ing first cut the latter off just 

 below the point of union. Inarchuig is adopted more for the 

 sake of novelty than utility. 



A wholesale plan of gi-aftiug Geraniums is to pot the stocks 

 ©arly in March from GO's into 32-sized pots, and plunge them 

 in a bottom heat of 7.5°. In a fortnight they will have made 

 fresh growth. Take ofT the scions as for cuttings, and as they 

 Lave not been placed in heat the wood will be firm, which is 



all the better, as it is to be united to the firm wood of the 

 stock. Cut off the head of the stock, leaving a few leaves 

 upon a side branch a little above where the scion is to be in- 

 serted, which cannot be too low. Prepare the scion or graft by 

 making a slanting cut downwards an inc'li in length, bringing 

 it out a little below an eye or bud. Make a corresponding 

 cut in the stock, removing the wood nearly half way through 

 it, and then both cuts must correspond. Make a tongue or 

 slit upwards in the scion, and downwards in the stock, so that 

 the one may fit into tlie other, as shown in the annexed 

 engraving. Bind tightly but not 

 very closely with a shred of bast 

 mat, taking care that the outer 

 edges of the stock and scion 

 coincide at least on one side. 

 .\ little moss placed upon that, 

 and bound with matting, will 

 keep the part moist and exclude 

 as much air as is needed. In 

 ten days loosen the matting, still 

 keeping the scion bound to the 

 stock, and close with the moss 

 as before to keep it moist. When 

 the graft begins to grow keep the 

 matting loose, and cut away the 

 upper part of the stock down to 

 tlie graft, as shown by the bar 

 in the engraving, It is hardly 

 necessary to observe that the stocks should be retained in 

 the bottom heat, and should have a moist and shaded atmo- 

 sphere until the operation is known to be successful. (Iradually 

 harden off, and the plants will be fit to plant out at the end of 

 May. Crown or clett-gi'afting may also be practised, and when 

 the stock and scion are of equal size is an equally successful 

 and more expeditious method. 



CHRYSALIS OF DEATHS-HEAD MOTH, 



Is your last Nmnber, page 324, in answer to your correspon- 

 dent, " A Young Entomologist," you state that the chrysalis 

 of the Dcath's-Head Moth " wUl not give birth to a moth 

 before next July." Now, in the " Naturalist's Library,"' 

 vol. iv., page 135, it is said that " The caterpillars are usually 

 full-grown about the middle of August, when they bury them- 

 selves in the earth and form an oval cell, in which they undergo 

 their destined changes. The moth seldom appears before the 

 end of September," &c. — [We have had a moth at the end of 

 July. — Eds.] 



I have this year had three remarkably fine caterpillars of 

 this Sphinx Atropos, which buried themselves in a large pot 

 of earth in the month of August, and according to the terms 

 of the above quotation I have been looking for the appearance 

 of the moth ; but from your reply it would seem that I have 

 still some months to wait for the birth of this magnificent 

 moth. I believe it is very difficult to can-y it through its 

 transformations. I keep the pot in my greenhouse under a, 

 bell-shaped cover of perforated zinc. May I ask you to have 

 the kindness to say which is the correct period, *hat which yoa 

 have given, or that which I have quoted from the " NatiuraUst's 

 Library " above ? — C. P. 



GRAPE VINE OF SANTA BARBARA. 

 One of the celebrities of Spanish Cahfomia is the immense 

 and beautiful Grape Vine now growing at the Montecilo, two 

 or three miles below Santa Barbara. The planter of the Vine 

 was Donna Marcellina Feliz de Dominguez, of the earliest 

 expetUtion to Sonora, before 1780. It was planted by her over 

 sixty-five years ago, from a slip which she cut from the young 

 laneyard at San Antonio Mission, in Monterey Co., for a horse- 

 whip. Her husband had got permission to make a small garden 

 near the warm springs of Montecilo, a favourite place for the 

 washerwomen of the new settlement of Santa Barbara, and 

 here she planted it on the edge of a knoll. It immediately 

 took root, and began to bud and leaf, and from careful atten- 

 tion, before she lUed, it was made to produce more than any 

 knoTSTi Grape Vine in all America, North or South. Between 

 1850 and ISGO it had trailed over some 80 feet in circum- 

 ference, with a trunk of 1 foot in diameter, rising quite 15 feet 

 from the ground. Some years it has borne over 6000 bunches 

 of ripe and sound Grapes, or close on BWO lbs., and become 



