132 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



Some gardeners have a portion of the ground excavated for 

 tvfo or three feet, and a brick pit of foiu'-inch ^york built, so 

 as to reach t\YO feet aboveground, and till this with dung or 

 leaves, or tan, or a mixture of all, pressed as closely as possible 

 together, within a little of the top, so as to just leave room for 

 the soil above and the growth of the plants ; this will give a 

 gentle heat some time, but the objection to tliis for plants to 

 grow in the soil is, that it sinks as the fermentation goes on ; 

 but for pots to be grown in, the sinking is not of so much 

 consequence, as it does not disturb any roots, and generally 

 the plants grow quite as fast as the mass sinks. This kind of 

 hot-bed, made of tan only, is very useful, as the tan is natu- 

 rally sweet and requires no soil at the top ; the pit can be 

 filled, and pots can be sunk in the tan just as they are in a 

 stove ; such a bed will do to force almost anything in pots, 

 and a general heat will last much longer than dung or leaves. 

 ;Many plants grow better in a dung-bed of the ordinary kind, 

 than in any kind of house. The Gardenia radicans, which 

 blooms in very small pots, is grown by thousands in common 

 dung-beds for the market, and in no other way will it grow 

 so fast or so free from the red spider, which is almost sure to 

 attack it if long at rest. Probably there is no means of grow- 

 ing plants more rapidly than in dung-beds, from the moist 

 atmosphere with a high temperature ; and the plants, being 

 necessarily close to the glass, everything grows fast, without 

 drawing half so much as they would iu a stove of the same 

 temperature. On>tliis account many small things are forced in 

 hot-beds; roses in large quantities, especially of the small 

 kinds, are easily bloomed in sixty-sized pots, and a single 

 frame holds a vast number ; besides which, the uses of hot- 

 beds in bringing forward chilies, tomatoes, capsicums, and 

 other things to plant out, can hardly be rated too highly. 

 Nor, with aU the contrivances that different people have 

 made, is there anything so good for the propagation of dahlias, 

 and various other plants from eyes and slips. We have seen 

 the pine-apple grown by hundreds, ^\ith nothing but dung 

 heat, and have ourselves grown one from a crown to fruiting 

 with dung heat, and a wooden frame only ; not but it was ten 

 times more trouble than it would have been gvown properly, 

 but it was nevertheless done. Then for balsams, and cocks- 

 combs, Ehodanthe Manglesii, gloxinias, achimenes, all dwarf 

 stove-plants, they will grow cleaner and with less trouble in a 



