April 23, 1874. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



329 



and encourage the exhibition and culture of those other florists' 

 flowers, such as the Carnation and Piooteo, that deserve more 

 general notice and wider cultivation. If only the graceful 

 example of Manchester were followed by many other provin- 

 cial botanical societies, then the exquisite flowers, popularly 

 conceived to be only the forced and narrow craze and hobby 

 of a few florist enthusiasts, would be brought forward and 

 afford a new pleasure to very many. 



Auriculas will be shown in Manchester in stands of six and 

 four dissimilar varieties, in pairs, and in classes for single 

 plants. If the stands seem small it is for the sake of keen 

 competition in high quality. Even large growers feel the pull 

 there is in presenting a stand of six faultless trusses, and it is 

 poor sport to have to make up for a stand so large that you 

 feel conscious of having to put in flowers below first-rate mark. 

 There are quite enough of these left blooming at home, there 

 should be nothing but the cleverest work upon the exhibition 

 tables. So of trusses. We are supposed to thin them severely 

 in the north ; but although my plants are strong, and last in 

 fine health, and live long, I seldom find that more than seven 

 pips upon one truss can be trusted to be up to the mark in 

 character and size. Nothing looks worse than a large number 

 of uneven pips — in fact, nine free and uniform are a better 

 sight than nineteen crowded and top-heavy. Moreover, I have 

 noticed that the edged classes often throw too much body 

 colour into central pips, while in all a number of the middle 

 ones will be of uneven size it left in. 



I hope to give our readers a short report of the Auriculas 

 at the Manchester Show. Would that efforts like this might 

 lead more lovers of floriculture to take up a florist's flower ! 

 The culture is a pleasure distinct from aught else in the garden. 

 In the hothouse and the conservatory, in the bright beds upon 

 the lawn, and the ribbons by the walks are, indeed, the gay 

 outer society of flowers which one admires in the mass and 

 acknowledges as distant acquaintance. But florists' flowers, 

 for which we do everything ourselves, and know the whole 

 nature of, which we cherish in health and nurse in their sick- 

 ness, which are of equal interest whether in bloom or in leaf 

 only, or even at rest altogether — these, I say, are our dear 

 familiar friends, these the circle of our intimacy. We would 

 rather stand over one bloom of these than be presented with 

 a handful from the dressy beds. So, at the risk of being 

 thought wildly enthusiastic, and of seeming to ride my hobby- 

 horse at John-Oilpin speed, I will say, in conclusion, that if 

 the reader has not some favourite flower in his heart and 

 garden (and a florist's flower grows to bo the greatest favourite) 

 he seems to me almost as one who has never known — amid 

 and above all life's many friendships — one love. — F. D. Hoknek, 

 Kirkhtj Miiheiird, liipon. 



HEATING BY HOT WATER. 



Having perused at page 2C9 what Mr. Eobsou offers as a 

 " review of some of the changes in public opinion " on the 

 above subject, I confess my inability to discover that he has 

 done more than given the results of his individual experience 

 as a gardener in connection with hot-water heating, which 

 commenced, as he states, in the year 182'.), or about forty-five 

 years ago. In doing this he has allowed his historical account 

 to centre upon the old and worn-out contention between saddle 

 and tubular boilers, to which is added that in his opinion the 

 saddle, " either in the old or in some improved form " (thus 

 admitting that the old saddle needs improvement), " is after all 

 the most useful, and consequently the most popular boiler." 

 The fact is that, like hundreds besides, ho lacks the requisite 

 data for instituting a scientific comparison of the merits of 

 these boilers ; and never having worked out the problem, he 

 has no reliable basis for the opinion he expresses. 



Perhaps, however, Mr. Robson will kindly excuse me if for 

 a moment I diverge from the confined hmits of the garden 

 and turn to the more open field of engineering, where greater 

 scope is found for the adequate discussion of this very question 

 of heating. And first let me inquire how it is that Mr. Robson 

 falls to discover that any real progress has been made in the 

 science of heating during the last half-century. To my mind 

 the answer is given in his own letter, from which it is clear 

 that his judgment is based upon the experience gained by 

 working the apparatus in his own hothouses— rather a limited 

 school of instruction for the purpose, I apprehend. 



Passing allusion is made by him to the open-pipe system ; 

 but how much valuable knowledge could be developed in a deep 

 and thorough review of the various changes tUe numerous 



systems have undergone! Our friend is entirely silent upon 

 the introduction of the out-ot-level system ; and taking them 

 somewhat in their order I wish we had had a few remarks 

 from him upon the opon-tank system, the close-pipe system, 

 the high-pressure system, the continuous-pipe system, the cir- 

 culatory-chamber system, the dip system, the one-pipe system, 

 and the various systems employed for warming domestic and 

 public buildings, all of which have an existence and a history, 

 and constitute in their aggregate an interesting and important 

 subject that deserves to bo carefully examined and deserilied. 

 Thus much for the "no-progress" portion of his letter. But 

 the boiler is the great centre around which all this question 

 lies ; and hero I must beg leave to say a few words. 



Before accepting Mr. Ilobson's dictum as to the superiority 

 of the saddle boiler I should like to know by what tests he 

 arrived at his conclusion, because it is quite opposed in prin- 

 ciple to those formed by our most scientific authorities. I 

 have no desire to discuss the ciuestion " Whoso is the best 

 boiler ?" as that would be quite out of place in a communica- 

 tion of this nature ; and my only object in now addressing you 

 is to caution your numerous readers against formiug an opinion 

 upon " authority," however respectable, when the ordinary 

 methods of trial and observation may be applied to this as to 

 all other questions of scientific interest or practical import- 

 ance. For the sake of clearness I shall divide all varieties of 

 boilers into two classes. Under the first I shall include those 

 which contain their water massed in a body, as the Cornish, 

 the cannon, the conical, the saddle, the cylindrical, and the 

 square-flued, which I propose, for want of a better name, to 

 style non-divisional boilers. Under the second will come those 

 ■whose fluid contents are partially distributed in divisions ac- 

 cording to a regular plan, such as the multitubular, the upright 

 tubular, the spiral tubular, the horizontal tubular, and the 

 oblique tubular : these I shall desigoate as divisional boilers. 

 This classification being founded on the two great distinctive 

 principles of construction upon one or other of which all boilers, 

 so far as I am aware, are manufactured, is evidently that which 

 is most convenient for our purpose. 



Now, whatever may bo the particular geometrical form which 

 a boiler assumes, it is in reality simply a vessel for the recep- 

 tion of water, designed according to the ideas of the maker for 

 the purpose of absorbing heat, and proceeding upon a recog- 

 nised principle which will be one of the two I have stated 

 above. These facts well uuderstood, it is easy to see that, 

 instead of a contention between the saddle and the tubular as 

 boilers, the question resolves itself into one of principles— 

 namely, that of the divisional as against that of the non-divi- 

 sional form of boiler. According to Mr. Eobsou the non- 

 divisional is the principle upon which all boilers should be 

 constructed, while I hold that tho divisional is far to be pre- 

 ferred to it, and I am in a position to sustain my own view by a 

 reference to some of the best known working examples. lude- 

 pendently, however, of pubUshed reports on the merits of any 

 particular boiler, let us turn for a moment to our locomotives, 

 and consider whether any non-divisional boiler could produce 

 effects at once so rapid and so economical as these multitubular 

 vessels : certainly no such example exists. And what shall we 

 say of that marvel of power and speed in heating presented by 

 the most recent type of fire-engine whose makers assert, and 

 prove too, that their improved form and application of the 

 tubular or divisional principle can bring water to the boiling 

 point in ten minutes, and produce a ste.am-pressure of 20 lbs. 

 in less than thirty minutes? Again, there are our marine 

 engines, all of which are constructed on the tubular principle, 

 for the very reason that it has proved itself beyond measure 

 the most effective yet known ; and also Field's patent tubes, 

 which have borne the test of nearly ten years, and are at this 

 moment in as extensive use as ever. So effective, indeed, is 

 the tubular or divisional principle, that the mere addition of, 

 as it were, the pendant tubes to the non-divisional form of 

 boilers increases their efficiency nearly a hundred per cent. 

 Is not this evidence of the superiority of the tubular principle ? 

 and has Mr. Robson anything comparable to it to adduce in 

 support of the unscientific, now nearly obsolete, form of boiler 

 of which he is so fond ? But to come to a comparatively recent 

 public test, I think we shall find in the reports of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society on boilers that the tubular or divisional 

 principle has completely eclipsed its competitor. Have we 

 not also Howard's patent tubular, which from its similarity to 

 the upright tubular we might fairly assume to have been sug- 

 gested by it? Here is a boiler which, requiring to be set in 

 brickwork, may be deemed the nearest approach to a garden 



