September 23, 187S. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICDLIUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



267 



two -l-inoh hot-water pipes in front, at c, to maintain the 

 proper degree of atmoBpherio heat, the soil being kept from 

 them by a slate on edge, d, e t is the ground level. Except 

 in being heated by hot water the pit does not differ from an 

 ordinary one. In the winter the soU can be removed and 

 boards or ashes introduced for affording convenience for 

 wintering plants. That useful pit is also adapted for growing 

 Mushrooms after the summer crops are removed if it is not 

 required for plants. The surface in that case will need to be 

 covered with hay. Another pit (fig. 62) has been submitted 



'-\m.,.^.^iSS3^^S^^^^ 



Fig. 62.— Hot-waUr Pit. 



by Mr. Abbey, but as I have not myself had actual experience 

 of it, I will submit that cultivator's remarks ; — Fig. 62 is " the 

 end section of a pit heated by hot-water pipes, differing little 

 from the preceding, except in the bottom heat being supplied 

 by two 4-iuch pipes to a chamber, a a, the soil being supported 

 above by flagstones, which also form the upper cover of the 

 hot-air chamber ; two of their ends and sides rest on the 

 outer walls, the other on pillars of brick or stone as o. The 

 flags are not laid in mortar, but have the joints open. A few 

 inches of rubble placed on the flags prevent the joints from 

 becoming choked with soil. There are two 4-inch pipes in 

 front for top heat ; c is the space for a thickness of 1 foot of 

 soil, and d the space for the plants ; <• f is the ground level. 

 This mode of furnishing bottom heat by hot-air chambers is 

 preferable to placing rubble over the pipes as in fig. CI, or soil 

 immediately in contact with the pipes. The heat is more 

 equable by the chamber system, and communicates to the soil 

 above a much lower temperature ; but the heat is greatest by 

 the other plan immediately above the pipes, whilst the remain- 

 ing parts of the soil are nearly cold. By the chamber system 

 there is a large volume of heated air of an equable tempera- 

 ture throughout, presenting the same evenness as a bed of fer- 

 menting materials." 



I now take one more step in advance to note a house which 

 was erected for Melons, and which has afforded a great supply, 

 not of Melons only, but Cucumbers, Figs, and Grapes. It has 

 also been of immense assistance in plant-growing, and is in 

 fact one of the most useful of structures for a garden of mode- 

 rate requirements. This is simply a house with a half-span 



rig. 63.— Hall-span Melon House. 



roof. Bottom heat is supplied by two 4-inch hot-water pipes 

 to a chamber «, and top heat by two pipes in front, and one 

 to the left of the path in the centre of the house, i is a bed 

 of soil. There is a trellis at c, and a bed at back (rf) which is 

 very useful for plants, yet of no value for Melons, but will grow 

 Figa or Grapes, the latter in pots. Bottom heat is furnished 

 to it by a hot-water pipe, e, covered with rubble. 



In submitting these plana let me thank Mr. Abbey for the 

 advice that many years ago he afforded me. I can now attest 

 to the usefulness of these several structures. Their value has 

 also been seen by others who have required plans. With the 

 Editors' permission I now furnish them, being satisfied that 

 as they have served me well that they will be also equally 

 serviceable to others who are making inqairies for useful aids 

 for protection and forcing. — Compiler. 



NOTES BY THE WAT. 



In going about on matters not connected with horticulture 

 but with my own profession I contrive to pick up a few stray 

 notes, which interest myself, not, perhaps, worthy of occupying 

 a place separately in our Journal, but which strung together 

 may have some little interest for a part of our readers. I paid 

 my annual visit to Cheltenham in August, and both there and 

 on my way home had an opportunity of stringing together 

 some of these notes. Could I be at Cheltenham and not pay 

 a visit to Mr. Cypher, who has so wonderfully come to the 

 front as a plantsman, showing what a real love for flowers can 

 do, even although there may not be the benefit of a previous 

 training ? I had a run through his houses, and there saw the 

 plants which have already done duty and were now being 

 nursed and brought on to enter the campaign another year. 

 Amongst other plants which he does so well, and which one 

 rarely sees now-a-days, is that fine old stove plant Gloriosa 

 snperba. What can exceed its quaintness and gorgeous beauty ? 

 And while many a plant with not one-twentieth part of its 

 claims to beauty is nursed and petted simply because it happens 

 to be a novelty, Gloriosa remains, except in a few places, utterly 

 neglected. Here it was very beautiful. The Allamandas were 

 full of bloom and making grand growth; indeed, the same 

 might be said of all his plants, and I doubt not we shall hear 

 something more of them next year. 



Dr. Abercrombie's garden in Suffolk Square was again inter- 

 esting, notwithstanding the very unfavourable season. In his 

 dry sandy soil very many things had failed, but his ribbon 

 border was very fine, and he is evidently in the way of giving 

 us some good things in Carnations and Ticotees. We are 

 already indebted to him for some of the best self-coloured 

 varieties we have, for Maiden's Blush, King of Yellows, and 

 Geant des BataUles cannot easily be beaten, and he is now 

 striving in the way of florists' varieties. A Carnation raised 

 by him and named Duke of Edinburgh, a fine scarlet bizarre, 

 was sent out by Mr. Turner last year. 



On my home journey I stopped at Beading and had the 

 pleasure of seeing the establishment of the Messrs. Sutton, of 

 which I have more than once written in the .Journal, whose 

 readers need not bo told of the extensive character of the 

 establishment and of the singularly complete arrangement of 

 everything connected with it. And yet why say complete? I 

 thought when I saw their new buildings last year that every- 

 thing that was needed even for their colossal business had 

 been done. What was my surprise, then, to find their exca- 

 vators at work, and to hear that they had more builders' work 

 on hand for the next two years than they had as yet under- 

 taken. The first of these works is the erection of a store 

 240 feet in length mainly for their farm seeds and Potatoes ; 

 then their lecture-room is to be altered, and tho "British 

 Workman," a cofl'ee house which they have erected for the 

 benefit of their workpeople and others, and which has proved 

 a real good to many. 'Time did not permit me to do more 

 than visit Sutherlands, the seat of Mr. Martin Sutton, jun., 

 where I saw one of the very best orchard houses (a lean-to 

 against a wall) that I have ever seen, where the trees planted 

 out were laden with fruit, and where alongside the walks a 

 number of Tea and Noisette Eoses had been planted and 

 trained on wire, giving in the earlier months of the spring 

 a splendid harvest of flowers. It is in such cases that the 

 orchard house becomes really a great advantage — very unlike 

 some that I have seen, where the plants grown in pots looked 

 unhappy, want of watering being, I think, the cause from 

 which they most suffer under such circumstances ; but planted- 

 out orchard houses, such as I saw here, seem to give us all 

 that wo want without the expense attendant on boilers and 

 pipes. 



From Beading I passed on to Slough, and who ever visited 

 the Eoyal Nursery that did not find something worth looking 

 at ? We southern florists owe much to Mr. Charles Turner. 

 But for him the Auricula, Pink, Carnation, and Picotee must 

 have gone out of growth amongst us. He has fostered them 



