HORSE-CHESTNUT. 



2,6 



HOTBED. 



Utilisation of Old Plants. The old 

 plants in autumn furnish another source for 

 new plants. When the flowers are be- 

 coming shabby, cut the plants down, 

 and, beginning at the bottom joints, con- 

 tinue to make cuttings, as described above, 

 until the fibre gets too soft for the purpose 

 each joint having eyes will furnish 

 plant ; these struck under a hand-glass, on 

 a very slight hotbed, will grow vigorously, 

 the soil being gritty sand, loam, and leaf 

 mould, in equal proportions, watering 

 cautiously, but sprinkling the cuttings 

 slightly every day in fine weather. 



Horse - Chestnut and Chief 

 Varieties. 



Under the generic name, sEscu/us, the 

 horse chestnut, we find not only sEsculus 

 hippocastanea, the common horse chestnut, 

 but AL. h. flore plena, a double-blossomed 

 variety, ^E. rubicunda, with its scarlet 

 blossoms, and one or two others. 



Horseradish. 



This much-relished accompaniment to 

 roast beef, should be grown on an 

 open spot It is a mistake to suppose 

 this crop can be stowed away in 

 any corner or out-of-the-way place; it 

 requires high culture to produce it good, 

 and it repays good treatment as well as any 

 crop. The best mode of culture is to 

 trench the ground to the depth of 3 feet, 

 but to be rather sparing of manure, as this 

 produces a tendency to fork ; the ground 

 should be well broken any time during 

 the winter. Then take up some old roots 

 and trim them for the kitchen, cutting off 

 the crowns about an inch and a half long 

 these latter are for planting. Next, with a 

 dibble, which is marked 2 feet from 'the 

 lower end that being the depth the crowns 

 are to be planted make holes 2 feet apart 

 in rows 3 feet apart. This done, take a 

 lath -stick split at one end, insert the crown 



in the slit, thrust it down to the bottom ol 

 the hole, and push it out by another stick 

 which is thrust down for the purpose. It 

 is unnecessary to fill up the holes, as they 

 gradually fill as the horseradish nears the 



HORSERADISH. 



surface. If a fresh row is planted every 

 year, and another taken up, the crop will 

 be kept in good condition, and a fresh 

 piece of improved ground offered every 

 year for other crops. 



Hotbed. 



The garden frame, when used for 

 forcing and as a means of raising the 

 temperature in the space surrounded and 

 covered by it, takes the same place as the 

 upper plant chamber in the propagator, 

 DUt the bottom heat is supplied by different 

 means. It can be supplied by hot water, 

 tis true, but when this is done the frame 

 assumes the form of a pit with sides of 

 Drick, similar to a melon pit. The garden 

 rame, being movable, may be used in any 

 convenient part of the garden, and the 

 icating material, which must be brought 

 to the spot, consists of dung from the stable- 



