THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 353 



DIOSCOREA DISCOLOR. 



[HIS interesting herbaceous stove climbing perennial is a 

 native of South America, and was introduced into this 

 country about 1820. It bas handsome leaves, variously 

 coloured with several shades of green, with a pale 

 glaucous stripe on each side of the midrib ; the under- 

 side of a purplish crimson. The plant is tuberous rooted, bearing 

 inconspicuous green flowers. In summer the foliage is very hand- 

 some, and it is well worthy of cultivation wherever there is a stove. 

 The plant delights in plenty of room, and a light rich sandy com- 

 post of iibry loam, sandy peat, and leaf-mould, with plenty of river 

 or silver sand mixed throughout the whole. It displays its manj- 

 hued foliage to great advantage, if trained round a balloon-shaped 

 trellis. It should be repotted just as the tubers begin to send forth 

 their young shoots in the spring, and if it placed on a tan-bed for a 

 short time before being repotted, the shoots will then grow rapidly, 

 and make a good display of fine foliage during the ensuing summer. 

 It requires plenty of water during the growing season, but the 

 quantity must be gradually reduced as the shoots decay in the 

 autumn, and during the winter the soil should be kept moderately 

 dry. It is easy of propagation by division of the tubers, at the time 

 of pottiDg in the spring. 



THE CONSTRUCTION OF ICE-HOUSES. 



[HE use of ice for cooling liquors and freezing creams in 

 the summer months, is much increasing in this and 

 other countries. It is considered one of the greatest 

 luxuries ; and so necessary has it become in families of 

 the first rank, that neither the confectioner nor butler 

 can serve up their respective contributions to an entertainment 

 without the assistance of ice. The difficulty of keeping ice through 

 the summer, has given rise to various inventions for that purpose. 

 The whole art consists in packing it closely together, and defending 

 it from the action of the atmosphere. 



Ice-houses for a middling establishment are, in general, about 

 twelve feet wide, and sixteen feet deep ; and in form, that of an egg, 

 the narrowest end downwards. 



The wall should be fourteen-inch work, and have an exterior coat 

 of well-rammed clay all round, as well as over the top. At the 

 bottom there is a well, two feet in diameter, to receive the drainage 

 from the ice; and from the bottom of this, a brickwork drain, of 

 Bmall bore, is laid to a lower distance, to draw off the water from the 

 well. This drain is soundly built with cement, and has a water trap 

 in some parts of it, to prevent air ascending to the ice. 



The north side of a hill near the house is the most ebgible 

 situation for such a building, because this is aa much as possible out 



''3 

 December, 



