706 



HOT 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



HOT 



then the plants may be placed in it. But if the hot-bed be 

 designed for other plants, there need be no holes made in 

 the dung ; but after having smoothed the surface with a 

 spade, you should cover the dung about three or four inches 

 thick with good earth, putting on the frames and glasses as 

 before. In making these beds, care must be taken to settle 

 the dung close with a fork ; and if it be pretty full of long 

 litter, it should be trod down equally on every part. Dur- 

 ing the first week or ten days after the bed is made, you 

 should cover the glasses but slightly in the night, and care- 

 fully raise them to let out the steam ; but as the beat abates, 

 the covering should be increased ; and as the bed grows 

 cold, fresh dung should be added round the sides of it. 

 The hot-bed made with tanners' bark, is however much pre- 

 ferable to that described above, especially for all tender 

 exotic plants and fruits, that require an even degree of 

 warmth to be continued for several months ; which cannot 

 be produced by horse-dung. The manner of making them 

 is, first dig a trench about three feet deep in dry ground, 

 and not above a foot in wet soils. This trench must be 

 raised two feet above the ground. The length must be pro- 

 portioned to the frames intended to cover it, but it should 

 never be less than ten or twelve feet long, and six wide. 

 The trench should be bricked or planked up round the sides, 

 to the above-mentioned height of three feet, and filled in the 

 spring with fresh bark, recently drawn out of the tanners' 

 vats, and from which also all the moisture has been previously 

 drained, by laying it in a heap for three or four days. As 

 the bark is put in, beat it down gently, and equally, with a 

 dung fork; but it must not be trodden, for that would pre- 

 vent its heating, by settling it too close. When this is done, 

 put on the frame, covering it with glasses ; and in about ten 

 days or a fortnight it will begin to heat ; at which time 

 plunge your pots of plants or seeds into it, observing not to 

 tread down the bark in doing it. These beds will continue 

 three or four months in a good temper of heat ; and if you 

 stir up the bark pretty deep, and mix a load or two of fresh 

 bark with the old when you find the warmth decline, you 

 will preserve its heat two or three months longer. Many 

 persons lay hot horse-dung in the bottom of the trench, 

 under the bark ; but this ought never to be practised, unless 

 the bed be wanted sooner than the bark would heat of itself, 

 and even then there ought only to be a small quantity of 

 dung at the bottom. The frames which cover these beds, 

 should be proportioned to the different plants they are de- 

 signed to contain. If they are to cover the Ananas or Pine- 

 apple, the back part of the frame should be three feet and a 

 half high, and the lower part fifteen inches, which will be 

 a sufficient declivity to carry off the wet ; and the back part 

 will be high enough to contain the large fruiting plants, and 

 the lower side will be sufficient for the shortest plants ; so 

 that by regularly placing them according to their height, 

 they will not only have an equal distance from the glasses, 

 but also appear much handsomer to the sight. And although 

 many people make their frames deeper, that is certainly high 

 enough to contain the plants without bruising their leaves, 

 and is much better than allowing them a larger space ; for 

 the deeper the frame is made, the less will be the heat of the 

 air enclosed therein, there being no artificial warmth but 

 what the bark affords, which will not heat a large space of 

 air: therefore as the pine-apple requires to be constantly 

 kept very warm, in order to ripen the fruit well, it must 

 follow, a greater depth will not be so favourable. But if the 

 bed be intended for taller plants, then the frame must be 

 made in depth proportionable thereto; but if it be for sowing 

 seeds, the frame need only be about fourteen or sixteen 



inches high at the back, and seven inches deep in the front, 

 by which means the heat will be much greater, and it is 

 commonly the proportion of the frames usually employed 

 in kitchen-gardens. Their length is generally according to 

 the fancy of the owner ; but they commonly contain three 

 lights in each, and are generally about eleven feet long. 

 They sometimes contain four lights ; but this is too great a 

 length for the boxes, for the frames thus made are not so 

 handy to remove as when they are shorter, and are more sub- 

 ject to decay at the corners. Some indeed have them to con- 

 tain but two lights, which is very handy for raising Cucum- 

 ber and Melon plants while young; but is too short for a 

 bark-bed, as it will not admit a sufficient quantity of bark to 

 continue the warmth for any considerable time. Whenever 

 frames are made very deep, it is much the better way to have 

 them made to take asunder at the four corners, so that they 

 may be removed with ease, and that the frame may not be 

 spoiled by the difficulty in pulling it off, to put in new bark, 

 or remove the old. Farther directions respecting hot-beds 

 and their management may be found in the culture prescribed 

 for Cucumbers and Melons under the article Cucumts. 



Hot-House. See Stove, and vol. ii. p. 778. 



Hottentot Cherry. See Cassine Maurocenia. 



Hottonia; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTEII. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 five-parted; parts linear, from erect spreading. Corolla: 

 one-petalled, salver-shaped ; tube the length of the calix ; 

 border five-cleft, flat ; clefts ovate-oblong, emarginate. Sta- 

 mina: filamenta five, awl-shaped, short, upright, opposite to 

 the clefts of the corolla, and placed on the tube ; antherse 

 oblong. Pistil: germen globular-acuminate; style filiform, 

 short ; stigma globular. Pericarp : capsule globular, acu- 

 minate, one-celled; placed on the calix. Seeds: very many, 

 globular; receptacle globular, large. ESSENTIAL CHARAC- 

 TER. Corolla : salver-shaped. Stamina : placed on the tube 

 of the corolla. Capsule: one-celled. The species are, 



1. Hottonia Palustris ; Common Water Violet. Peduncles 

 in naked whorls of several flowers ; leaves in whorls, pinnate. 

 The root consists of numerous white capillary fibres, which 

 strike deep into the mud. The stem is a scape a foot high, 

 simple, upright; flowers pale purple or white, with a yellow 

 eye, in several whorls one above another, forming altogether 

 a handsome spike. This singular plant has the leaves under 

 water, and the upper part of the flowering stem only above. 

 The flowers are beautiful, and the leaves afford a refuge, 

 perhaps even nourishment, to the fresh-water periwinkle and 

 other small shell-fish. A native of this country: it abounds 

 in ditches and marshes, stagnant waters, and slow-running 

 streams, flowering in May and June, and continuing a long 

 time in flower. There is a variety with flowers of a deep 

 rose-colour, and smaller leaves. The old writers call this 

 plant Millefolium, from the abundance of its leaves ; and 

 Viola, which was a favourite name for the Stock-Gilliflower, 

 and many other handsome-flowered plants besides the Violet. 

 The English, besides Water Violet, call it Wafer-Milfoil or 

 Yarrow, and Water-Gilliflower; the Germans name it, Was- 

 serviole; the Dutch, Watenriolier ; the Danes, Vandrollike ; the 

 Swedes, Vattenrolleka ; the French, Plameau, Plume d'Eau, 

 Plumette, Violette Aquatique, Girqftee d'Eau, Millefeuille 

 d'Eau, Hotlone; and the Italians, Miriofillo Aquatico. This 

 elegant species may be propagated in deep standing waters 

 by dropping the seeds as soon as they are ripe into the 

 water, where they are designed to grow ; and if not disturbed 

 they will appear and increase abundantly in the following 

 spring. 



2. Hottonia Indica ; Indian Water Violet. Peduncles axil- 



