280 brief remarks; 



is very nearly the same as that of Nitida. A Certificate of Merit was 

 awarded it. — Mr. Kennedy, of Covent Garden, sent a narrow-leaved 

 variety of Scolopendrium officinale from Yorkshire. — Mr. Stark, of 

 Edinburgh, sent a new purple and lilac-flowered Linaria, called 

 Arabida, which looked as if it would make a good rock plant. It was 

 raised from Portuguese seeds, collected by Dr. Welwilzsch, in 1849. — 

 Messrs. Jackson, of Kingston, sent half a-dozen nicely-blossomed 

 plants of Odontoglossum grande, which had been flowered in a cool 

 house. It was mentioned that this is one of the hardiest of exotic 

 orchids, and that it has been even bloomed out of doors, during summer, 

 under the shade of a Laurel bush. — Mr. Macintosh, Nurseryman, 

 Maida Vale, Edgeware Road, received a Certificate of Merit for a very 

 large and fine shrubby specimen of common Mignonette. This was a 

 single plant, pricked out in a small state into a pot last autumn, and 

 shifted on till it had attained its present size. It was remarked that 

 Mignonette is not an annual, as many imagine it to be ; but that it 

 will become a woody shrub, and last for years, provided it is well 

 managed, and kept free from frost and damp. The garden also fur- 

 nished a large yellow Gourd, weighing 136£ lbs. ; specimens of a 

 yellow-striped Mushroom-shaped Squash, and a French Sulphurator. 

 The great merit of the latter is its simplicity and cheapness. It 

 consists of a tin-box for holding the sulphur, placed on the upper side 

 of the pipe of a pair of common bellows. The sulphur gets into the 

 pipe through small holes made for the purpose in the bottom of the 

 box, and in order that no stoppage may take place, a small hammer- 

 head attached at the end of a slight steel spring is fixed on the under- 

 side of the bellows, a gentle tap from which, now and then, keeps up a 

 continuous fall of sulphur into the pipe. These appliances, which may 

 be attached to a pair of bellows for little more than sixpence, answer 

 every purpose for which they are intended, equally as well as a more 

 expensive machine. 



Heating Greenhouses, &c. — Mr. Michael M'Sherry, of 3, James- 

 street, Limerick, Ireland, exhibited in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, 

 a Model Apparatus, stated to be very effective. The following 

 description is given of it : — " To be made of boiler plate-iron, with a 

 metal front, for heating by circulation of air. The flame and smoke 

 from the furnace pass under the stove to the extreme end, and then rise 

 at the two sides, return to the front, and get over the top to the 

 chimney, where they do not escape until they pass all round the stove 

 and heat every part of it. The air of the house to be heated is drawn in 

 brick flues under the floor to the under compartments of the stove, passes 

 in them to the extreme ends, then rises to the upper divisions, and 

 finally flows back into the house over a water-tank. In addition to 

 this, there is a hot-air box on each side of the fire, through which 

 external air is circulated, as well as through hollow- fire-bars, discharg- 

 ing the great body of heat (which they usually absorb) into the house, 

 and rendering it available for bottom heat. The stove is to be set in 

 brickwork, and as the outside of it is as hot as any part, much addi- 

 tional heat will be obtained by leaving a space of two inches between 

 the stove and brickwork, they bringing external air to act on the two 

 sides, and pass into the house." 



