30 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



"Where bottom heat is to be obtained by fire it will be needful to 

 box the flue or heating pipes, and the bed of earth or sand over 

 the boxing is best supported by slate stones, which are both durable 

 and good conductors of heat. The boxing should be provided 

 with ventilators to be left open in severe weather when there is risk 

 of freezing the house. 



- When it is desired to root a few tender cuttings, or to start trop- 

 ical seeds in a greenhouse which is kept cool for the healthy growth 

 of hard}' plants, it can be easil}^ accomplished b}' parting off a 

 portion of the house with curtains of cotton cloth, so as to avoid 

 airing the warm bed too freely when the rest of the house requires 

 air. The bed can be kept warm readily by placing under it eight 

 inches of hot manure as described for a hot-bed. 



This plan is often pursued by those gardeners who raise lettuce 

 and cucumbers in greenhouses ; it is desirable to start the cucumber 

 seed while the lettuce is growing, so as to have good cucumber 

 plants by the time the lettuce is cleared away ; the different habits 

 of the lettuce and cucumber, one of which is impatient of heat, 

 and the other of cold, render it difficult to accomplish the feat of 

 making them thrive together without some such contrivance as 

 that described above. 



Bottom heat is not recommended for forcing lettuce in green- 

 houses as was the practice some years ago, experience having 

 proved that it grows better without it. 



Discussion. 



F. L. Harris said that all gardeners are advocates of bottom 

 heat, but that we lose a great deal by using cold water for water- 

 ing. He would have the water twent}' degrees warmer than the 

 atmosphere. Instead of using it at 38° or 40°, the usual tempera- 

 ture of cisterns, he would have it from 70° to 80°. Mr. Harris 

 pointed to a remarkabl}' fine plant of Coelogyne cristata exhibited 

 bj' him, and said that he would on no account use water of the 

 temperature of an ordinary cistern to water it. He regarded this 

 point as of the highest importance. 



John C. Hovey thought every cultivator should understand the 

 rule that in watering any plant the water should be of the tempera- 

 ture of the natural habitat of that plant. 



Mr. Philbrick said that the point is well understood by gardeners. 



