14G 



JODENAL OP HOMICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Feliruaij 12, 1874. 



structure, can be indicated at any moderate distance, and it 

 occurred to me at once that his invention could be made avail- 

 able in a great variety of ways for horticultural purposes : 

 hence my reason for troubling you with a few suggestive re- 

 marks about his apparatus. 



In explaining the mode of its action Mr. Bryson said, 

 " Suppose you wish to be warned during the night when either 

 the external air or that of any hothouse has fallen to a given 

 point, you fix the indicator to that degree, and the moment it 

 falls to it a bell fixed in your room begins to ring, and continues 

 to do so tlU the temperature rises to about the given point 

 again, unless it is thrown out of gear by yourself." This is 

 what he calls the minimum indicator. There is also a maxi- 

 mum thermometer, which is set in the same way, so that the 

 moment the heat exceeds that at which it is fixed the bell 

 shall ring, this begins and keeps on till the temperature falls 

 below the point fixed upon. 



I need hardly suggest the variety of ways in which such an 

 arrangement would be useful to gardeners, and more especially 

 to amateurs, in the management of hothouses. For instance, 

 when the weather is variable and sudden frosts set in, espe- 

 cially towards morning, the thermometer outside the window 

 could be set to indicate 36°, and this would give a margin in 

 order to get up heat before the freezing point was reached. 

 In the case of amateurs who heat their small greenhouses 

 with gas, they could have an arrangement in their bedrooms 

 by which they could turn on more gas, and when the minimum 

 point was exceeded the beU would cease, and they would know 

 that all was safe. On the other hand, when the heat exceeded 

 what was required, the damper could be dropped into the flue, 

 or the gas shut off, as the case might be, by a simple arrange- 

 ment like bell wires. In this way much trouble as weU aa fuel 

 could be saved.— W. Thomson, Tweed Vineyard, Galashiels. 



EOUGH PLATE GLASS. 



There are, no doubt, those among our readers who are old 

 enough to remember well nigh forty years ago. They vrill be 

 able to call to remembrance some of what may he termed the 

 curious incidents of gardening practice, as well as some of the 

 many principles or theories promulgated during that time by 

 those who regarded themselves as the legitimate teachers of 

 the science of our profession. They will remember how ridi- 

 culously absurd were some of the schemes and systems which 

 were expected to send horticulture bounding forward on the 

 royal road of improvement. The Eoyal Horticultural Society 

 of London had hollow pillars of brick built in its gardens, and 

 filled with little besides bones and charcoal, in which to plant 

 Vines and show practical men how to grow Grapes ad libitum 

 in this unfavourable climate of ours. The next swing of the 

 Vine-growing pendulum landed us up to the nose in dead pigs 

 and slaughter-house refuse as the prime powers for producing 

 fine Grapes. By means of planting a single row of White 

 Providence Pine Apple i feet apart in pits of rich soil heated 

 with stable litter, some extra large fruit were produced, and 

 hence an economical champion steps into the ring of gaping 

 and wondering practical gardeners, and tells them that all that 

 is needed to produce the finest Pine Apples are a few bricks, and 

 boards, and glass lights, and some stable manure ; and promul- 

 gates the theory, so complimentary to practical men, that 

 whoever amongst them put their employers to the expense of 

 hot-water pipes, &a., for Pine culture, could only do so with 

 the pure motive of getting a per-centage out of the bill ! 

 Another wrote articles in the papers by the ell, to prove that 

 the intermediate or progressive system of shifting pot plants 

 was all wrong, and that the soundest and most sensible theory 

 was to transfer them out of thumb pots into the largest size 

 required at once. 



Then rough and comparatively obseui'e plate glass was re- 

 commended as the panacea for all the ills to which plants are 

 heir in ordinary glass houses. Among other wonders which 

 this glass was to work, it was to render shade in bright summer 

 weather entirely unnecessary, and yet it was not to intercept 

 the Hght in winter ! But we are not writing for the amuse- 

 ment of our readers, else we could well nigh fiU our whole 

 number with the absurdities which have been propounded. 

 Of course, such advanced notions, when brought to the test of 

 public utility, were found to be indebted to imagination for 

 their rose-coloured virtue ; and so such projects, and even their 

 projectors, are speedOy well nigh forgotten by an ungrateful 

 generation of men who have the opportunity of practising the 

 science of horticulture. But of course we must not forget 



that there is a gracious law in nature that makes our own 

 offspring appear to us the most lovely in the world, and un- 

 happily all are not sceptical, and such theories ai-e followed 

 by a certain number, merely on the faith of high scientific 

 authorities. 



But our heading reminds us that it is a few words on our 

 experience of rough obscure glass that we want to say. When 

 the fact is stated that we are getting rid of it as fast as we can, 

 it is scarcely necessary to say that we do not like it for horti- 

 cultural purposes. We are not sufEciently clear-headed to 

 understand how it manages to shade in summer, and in winter 

 let through as much light to Pines, etc., as clear horticultural 

 sheet-glass ; but we have mastered the fact that it so shades 

 them — both in summer and winter ; that we find those grown 

 under it are never so stocky, nor so certain to fruit when re- 

 quired, as those grown under clear sheet-glass. 



Our experience with Vines under rough plate is that they 

 require the most exact treatment in the matters of air-giving 

 and air-moisture to prevent the under sides of the leaves from 

 becoming one mass of blotchy warts; and even with such care 

 we have never been able to wholly avert this affection — said by 

 some to be produced by something amiss at the root, but which, 

 we venture to say, is brought on in ninety -nine cases out of a 

 hundred by overmuch moisture in the atmosphere and deficient 

 ventilation in dull weather, and of course obscure glass favours 

 the malady. And for Orchid culture we do not find it so good 

 as ordinary ground sheet-glass. 



We could find a much more extended catalogue of faults 

 with rough obscure glass, but we do not consider it necessary 

 in order to warn our readers, who may be building or glazing, 

 against it, more particularly north of the Tweed, where gar- 

 deners are not troubled with overmuch light, as a general rule. 



Eough plate is recommended for horticultural purposes 

 chiefly because scalding sometimes occurs to Vines and Pines 

 under clear sheet-glass when the sun is powerful in our few 

 bright months. Where such is the case, and the evil cannot 

 be obviated otherwise than by slight shadings, we should re- 

 commend shading for a few weeks in preference to glazing with 

 glass sufficiently obscure to keep light from the plants for 

 three-fourths of the year. We have never experienced scalding 

 under the clearest sheet when it is, as it ought to be, free from 

 specks. Foreign sheet-glass is generally very specky, and all 

 such glass should be rejected ; and where a few specks do 

 occur, they are easily obscured in summer, so as to prevent 

 their acting on the foliage like lenses. 



Unless it be in exceptional circumstances, and during the 

 very brightest sun, we consider shading to healthy Pines and 

 Vines, as well as many other things, a great evil. To increase 

 the evil by using glass which prevents the fullest passage of 

 light (for the sake of preventing any bad effects that may arise 

 from its intensity for a very short time of the year, while such 

 can be temporarily effected), cannot be sound practice. Light 

 is the great consoUdator and colourist of our flowers and fruits ; 

 besides, flowers and fruits may be called for in vain, like spirits 

 from the vasty deep, unless vegetation is first perfectly matured 

 by the agency of Ught. — {The Gardener.) 



GAEDENING VICTIMISED BY SMOKE. 



" Each day the wind rising with sooted wings, 

 A sable cloud athwaxt the welkin flings." 



I BEAD with great interest your articles on " Villa or Sub- 

 urban Gardening," and try to gleau what information I can 

 from them ; but, unfortunately, they fall short of what I re- 

 quire, for I have the misfortune — and it is a misfortune to all 

 who love flowers — to live near a large manufacturing town, 

 and my efforts to render my beds gay and flourishing are 

 entirely frustrated by the volumes of smoke that pour over 

 them from the tall chimneys in the neighbourhood. This 

 evil is not touched upon by the writer of the articles in ques- 

 tion, and I, for one, should esteem it a great boon if he, or any 

 of your readers, would occasionally give the names of a few 

 plants hardy enough to resist this abominable nuisance. Some 

 flowers I find wiU thrive in spite of it, but very few. That 

 lovely flower Phlox Drummondi does well, and a few more 

 common annuals, such as Clarkia, Eschscholtzia, Convolvulus 

 minor, hut not major, Marigolds, Mignonette, Asters, Stocks, 

 etc. ; but these last only a short time, and I try in vain to 

 make anything of Scarlet Geraniums or Verbenas. The same 

 with Eoses, except a few, and those do only moderately well. 

 Pinks and Carnations I can grow, and for this I am thankful ; 

 but as I have a large garden just in front of the drawing-room 



