380 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTtJRB AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. r Norember 11, 1885. 



they become established, otherwise the heavy crop of frnit will 

 exhaust the plant and caase the leaves to turn pale. — W. Uills, 

 Jiiver 3Icad Uuuse, Sunlunj, MiddUsex, 



PLATYCERIUM (ACROSTICHUMi ALCICORNE. 



_ I HAVE often been surprised that this gem is not more exten- 

 sively grown ; it is of very easy coltnre, has a very pleasing 

 appearance, and with a little attention amply repays one for 

 the time bestowed on it. I have seen it growing on a small 

 piece of board. I grow mine on small roots ; some I hang np, 

 and I place one here and there about my stove. I have one 

 very large specimen. I obtained a large Alder root— it filled a 

 large barrow ; this I filled with sphagnum moss, peat, and 

 cocoa-nut fibre ; I then planted small plants over it, and they 

 now form a beautiful object. The lovely fronds and the large 

 frill are very novel. Here and there pieces of the root pro- 

 jecting, covered with moss, add greatly to the beauty of the 

 whole. When showing anyone round my stove I have often 

 heard the remark. What a lovely Fern ! It never fails to be 

 remarked, having such a striking and chaste appearance. I 

 think when plants of it are placed here and there about onr 

 stoves they serve as a relief to other subjects. Growing, as it 

 does, on the root, it looks more like nature. The Sfag's-horn 

 Fern is an old favourite of mine, and I think no collection of 

 Ferns complete without it.— F. P. L. 



"VINERY HOUSE, .\XLERTON. 



(Concludcdfrom page 3G2.) 

 We now come to the boiler house. It is large and lofty, and 

 situated in the angle formed by the houses on the left, which I 

 have endeavoured to describe, and those which extend directly 

 south-west from the boiler-house 320 feet. Here we have two 

 " double-tubular boilers with cylindrical water-jacket furnaces," 

 heating 6000 feet of 4-inch piping ; and that they are kept 

 going is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Clarke forces so as 

 to have Grapes and Peaches ripe in if ay. Mr. Pearson should 

 come and see these two boilers ; he would not have said, when 

 writing of tubular boilers, " I would not have one for a gift." 

 1 have tried more than one kind of tubular boiler, had re- 

 placed by tubular boilers those which our " best gardeners give 

 preference to," saddle boilers or modifications of them, and 

 onnd one tubular boiler heat as much piping, or give as much 

 heat, as half a dozen fires required for the others. The most 

 efficient boiler I have used is that form of the tubular boiler 

 with the water-jacket, which gives it a great advantage over all 

 tubular boilers, and I may say every kind of boiler. This 

 boiler is of Mr. Clarke's invention. The two have been in use 

 some time, and are of the kind known as "No. 3, double 

 tubular," price £30. That they do their work satisfactorily was 

 evidenced by what I saw in the houses, and for economy in 

 consumption of fuel they are unequalled, as Mr. Clarke's coke 

 account plainly shows. Tbe cost for coke is £18 per year, or 

 on an average £10 per quarter. From this we must deduct for 

 coke consumed in the house, kitchen, gardener's cottage, by 

 the boiler for steaming food for the horses in winter, and by 

 the boiler in the cellar which heats the 800 feet of 4inch 

 piping in the conservatory, greenhouse, and house, which 

 piping id independent of the GOOO feet attached to the two 

 boilers ; for these items I cannot say less than £10, so that 

 the two boilers heat, to boiling point if necessary, GOOO feet of 

 4-inch piping, at a cost of £30 a-year. 



The boiler house was in good order, and not a place for 

 rubbish and dirt as one notunfrequently finds it. Outside the 

 boiler house a large tank was pointed out that takes the water 

 from the roofs, it being made large enough to hold a sufficient 

 supply to last through the summer. Some idea of the water 

 required may be formed, when it is stated that one of the Vine 

 borders alone requires 800 gallons each time it is watered. 

 None but rain water is employed for watering purposes. It is 

 to be regretted that all proprietors of gardens do not make 

 provision for collecting the rain water from the buildings, so 

 as to leave no excuse for allowing plants to wither and die, or 

 the leaves to become covered with insects, owing to the want of 

 a proper supply of water. 



Adjoining the boiler house is the stove. It has a central bed, 

 with hot-water pipes for furnishing bottom heat, a good widft 

 shelf in the front, and a walk at back and front, and I noticed 

 the same liberal amount of piping as in the other houses, which 

 certainly is an example that might be advantageously followed. 



The back wall and part o< the roof were covered with that best 

 of all stove climbers, Stepbanolis fioribunda, and Ipom.aa Hors- 

 faUiir, whose rich crimson flowers were very attractive. There 

 were also splendid plants of the sweetest-scented of all flowers, 

 the double-blossomed Gardenia florida, clustered with buds, and 

 having bright and shining foliage ; and U. Stanleyana, in flower. 

 These plants are not half so much grown as they deserve to be. 

 Good plants of Clerodendron Thomsonic, trained to a sort o( 

 upright conical wirework, were in flower, the rosy pnrple 

 flowers contrasting well with the cream-coloured bracts. Fran- 

 ciscea coufertiflora or laurifolia, with handsome fohage, struck 

 me as being very different from the ill-formed f traggling plants 

 generally seen, with foliage devoured by thrips and scale. There 

 were AUamandas, Ixoras, and many other kinds of plants of 

 merit, but I had not time to note them. 



Next to the stove is another early vinery 52 feet long by 

 20 feet wide, having a border similar to those of the other two 

 vineries, it being made both inside and outside the house, 

 chambered, and having hot-water pipes beneath it. The wood 

 of the Vines was very hard, and the buds very prominent. 

 These Vines had long been at rest, and from the appearance of 

 the buds it would have been no difUcuIt matter to have started 

 them to ripen the fruit in January, but Mr. Clarke does not 

 wish to force so early, as he can keep the late sorts in good 

 condition until May, when the early houses yield liuit. The 

 varieties are principally Elack Hamburgh and Golden Ham- 

 burgh, with a few Buckland Sweetwater and Trentham Black. 

 The Golden Champion is also here under trial. The house was 

 crammed with pot Vines of late sorts, such as Lady Downe's, 

 Alicante, and Barbarossa, which Mr. Clarke fruits extensively 

 and successfully in pots. 



The late vinery is 52 feet long by 20 feet wide, and its border 

 is vaulted like all the others. It extends both ontside and inside 

 the house, and is heated by nine rows of hot-water pipes be- 

 neath, and there is the same nnmber of pipes for top heat. 

 The border is entirely above the path, which is at the back of 

 the house, and on the parapet or wall keeping up the soil of the 

 border are grown Vines in pots, a row of them as close as the 

 pots will stand touching each other, and the canes being trained 

 upright. On the other side of the path, against the back wall, 

 is another row of Vines in pots, the pots resting on flags, which 

 form the cover of the passage for the hot-water pipes that go 

 through these houses to the Peach houses beyond. Small 

 openings in the sides of the pa.°SBge regulate the heat accord- 

 ing as it is required for warming the flags, so as to give bottom 

 beat to the Vines, or to admit heated air to the house. The 

 Vines on the sides of the path are quite a sight, carrying from 

 eight to thirteen bunches each, which, though not so large, nor 

 with berries so large as those on the Vines in the borders, are 

 perfect in colour, and large enough for a gentleman's table. The 

 varieties were Lady Downe's and Alicante. In these pot Vines 

 I noticed that the greater the number of bunches the smaller 

 these were, and some Hambnrghs had the inevitable red of an 

 overcrop. The bunches of many would weigh more than lib. 



The permanent Vines were thriving exceedingly well, carry- 

 ing a heavy crop, but not too heavy, as was evidenced by 

 the wood they had made this year, and that being fully ripened. 

 Mr. Clarke experiences no difficulty in doing this ; from the 

 warmth and raised border he has a perfect control over them. 

 Barbarossa, an eye in ISCG, carried two bunches, and had a 

 cane 'i\ inches in circumference, with eyes like nuts, and 

 seeing their wood I do not doubt Mr. Clarke's statement, that 

 ho had last year a bunch of this kind 4 feet in circumference. 

 This year, however, both Barbarossa and the Mns. at of Alex- 

 andria have not done so well, owing, he fays, to thei- not having 

 had sufficient water last season. The Muscat and Barbarossa, 

 Mr. Clarke finds, will not bear nearly so much drought as Lady 

 Downe's and Alicante ; or, in other words, the last two are not 

 such gross feeders as the former two. AVhen grown in the heated 

 border, Mr. Clarke informs me that the Barbarossa, so far from 

 having a thick skin, as it is often represented to have, has a 

 skin as thin as a Hamburgh, and is a Grape he prizes highly, 

 both for its keeping qualities and flavour. 



Lady Downe's, an eye in 18Ci, is carrying twenty-two 

 bunches of above a pound each, with large, wi il-swelled berries, 

 perfect in colour and bloom, and notwithstanding the heavy 

 crop the cane is very strong (3 inches in girth). Here, may I 

 ask "B. M. W." if 1 understand him correctly, that the 

 canes he writes about in his highly interesting and valuable 

 article, page 210, are of the current .tear? the measurement 

 referriug to this, and not last year's wood. For a Vine to have 

 "canes, three and four to a Vine — the Vines also with a crop — 



