634 



STO 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



STO 



the upper sashes. This stove has a furnace with flues, and 

 gentle fires must be made in it when the nights are cold, and 

 occasionally during severe weather in the day-time, to keep 

 up an uniform heat. The Dry Forcing-stove has no pit, but 

 furnace and fire-flues only. It is chiefly intended for forcing 

 fruit-trees, as Peaches, Nectarines, Vines, and Figs, early 

 Cherries, and the best sorts of Apricots and Plums, together 

 with Gooseberries, Currants, Raspberries, Strawberries, &c. 

 The whole area is filled with rich earth two feet deep, in 

 which the trees are planted to remain, having been first 

 trained in the open ground till they are in a state for bearing. 

 They are planted in straight or oblique lines from the back 

 to the front, the tallest behind ; and are trained against the 

 back wall and front to a trellis, and in the area as espaliers. 

 Pots of Strawberries and Kidney Beans are placed upon 

 shelves near the glasses, and vines are trained in from without 

 along the frames, or on trellis work over the upper glasses. 

 These stoves begin to be worked in January, or early in 

 February. When the fruiting season is past, the upper 

 glasses are removed, to admit air and showers to strengthen 

 the annual shoots of the trees, and so are continued open till 

 winter. It is obvious, that in such a stove, crowded with 

 fruit-trees of different kinds, that require different manage- 

 ment, and some more warmth to force them than others, all 

 the trees will not succeed equally well : and the vines trained 

 along the upper glasses will be likely too much to overshade 

 the trees in the area below. Curious and opulent individuals, 

 therefore, have a distinct stove constructed for each sort of 

 fruit, the name of which they give to the stove ; as, the Peach- 

 house, the Vinery, &c. But as there is nothing peculiar in 

 their structure, their principles also being the same as the 

 others, there is no necessity here to describe them. Stoves 

 upon various plans, according to the caprice of the owner or 

 builder, have certainly been constructed, but they have rarely 

 equalled, and perhaps never excelled, those now most in use. 

 Forcing Frames, are much used by the nurserymen near 

 London, for bringing forward or forcing early flowers, tender 

 annual plants, dwarf fruit-trees, Strawberries, Kidney Beans, 

 &c. These are from five to fifteen feet wide, from five to 

 ten feet high, and of any convenient length ; a wall of brick 

 behind, and a front of glass, either in one slope, or with 

 upright glasses before, and sloping one above. Dung, bark, 

 or fire, may be applied to heat these forcing-frames. If the 

 first, it is placed chiefly against the back walls and ends, 

 which are then mostly formed of thick planks. If bark or 

 fire be used, the structure and application are much the same 

 as in the Dry and Bark Stoves. Hot walls are forcing-frames 

 worked by fire, and intended to bring forward choice fruits. 

 If it be proposed to have only a single row of trained trees, 

 a border of from four to six in width will be sufficient. 

 The back wall must be eight or ten feet high, with flues run- 

 ning the whole length. In front is to be a wall a foot high 

 with a plate on it, upon which are sloping glass-frames to 

 the top of the back wall ; these are most convenient in two 

 ranges, the upper range made to slide. The trees are trained 

 on a trellis within five or six inches of a wall. Along the 

 bottom in the border may be set Strawberries, Dwarf Kidney 

 Beans, Frame Peas, Roses, or any flowers or fruits that do 

 not grow so high as to shade the trees. Such a frame may 

 be worked with one furnace, if it be not more than forty or 

 fifty feet long. Larger forcing-frames differ in nothing but 

 their size from the forcing-frame here described. For Forcing- 

 Beds, see Hot-beds, and the article Cucumis. Frames covered 

 with oiled paper instead of glass, are sometimes used for 

 protecting Melons. They may be constructed either like the 

 cover of a waggon, or like the roof of a house. They have a 



frame of wood at the ba-se, to which in the former, broad hoops 

 are fastened, circularly bent over. The width of the frame 

 should be from five to six feet. The distance between the 

 hoops should not be more than a foot, and there should be 

 two rows of strong packthread or rope-yarn on each side of 

 the arch, running from hoop to hoop, to keep the oiled paper 

 from sinking down with wet. The length of each frame need 

 not be above ten feet, that being the size of a three-light 

 frame ; if longer, they will be heavy, and troublesome to move. 

 The other sorts of frame may be made of pantile laths, or 

 slips of deal of those dimensions, fastened into a ridge at 

 the top, and the base-frame at the bottom. The lights may 

 have hinges alternately on each side, that they may be raised 

 occasionally to admit air on the side from the wind, or on all 

 sides in warm weather. When the frames are quite dry, the 

 paper is pasted on. The best paper for this purpose is called 

 Dutch wrapper ; for it is strong, and becomes pellucid when 

 oiled all over. After the paste is well dried, the paper should 

 be oiled over on the outside, which, if well done with linseed 

 oil, will be sufficient. The oil should be dry before the 

 frames are exposed to the wet, otherwise the paper will tear. 

 In pasting the paper on the frames, care should be taken to 

 stretch it out very smooth, and to paste it to all the ribs of 

 the frames, and also to the packthreads, to prevent the wind 

 from raising the paper. If the frames be well painted over 

 with the following composition, they will last a long time : 

 To every six pounds of melted pitch, add half a pint of 

 linseed oil, and a pound of brick-dust ; mix them well toge- 

 ther, and use them warm. This is the best pigment for all 

 timber exposed to the weather, for no moisture can pene- 

 trata through it. The covers here described must not be 

 kept too close down over the plants, lest they be drawn up 

 too weak, but air should always be admitted when it can be 

 with safety. These covers of oiled paper are useful not only 

 for Melons, but for covering cuttings ofj exotic plants, and 

 for many other purposes : the paper will seldom last longer 

 than one season ; but if the frames be well made, and when 

 out of use be carefully laid up in shelter, they will last several 

 years, especially if a band of straw be laid round the bed, 

 for the frames to rest upon during the time they are in use. 

 Hot-houses and Pine-stoves are frequently infested with red 

 spiders, ants, and olher insects. To destroy these, the fumes 

 of burning tobacco are applied by means of bellows adapted 

 for that purpose; and when the house is deeply infected, a 

 hole large enough to admit the pipe of the bellows is made 

 in the door, and the smoke is kept in for several hours. This 

 must be repeated two or three times, according to the condi- 

 tion the plants are in ; but if some few only are infected, they 

 may be removed into a small room, and fumigated there. 

 Matches also, moistened with a tincture of assafcetida, and 

 then rolled in a powder of brimstone and Scotch snuff in 

 equal quantities, have been recommended to be burnt in the 

 houses, closely shut up. The walls also, with the frames, to 

 be well washed with four ounces of sublimate dissolved in 

 two gallons of water. This wash may be used on old garden 

 walls ; and may be applied to the roots of trees to destroy 

 ants, but in that case it must be made weaker. 



Stratiotcs f a genus of the class Dioecia, order Dode- 

 candria; or class Polyandria, order Hexagynta. GENERIC 

 CHARACTER. Male. Calix: spathe common, two-leaved, 

 three or five flowered ; leaflets boat-shaped, compressed, 

 obtuse, converging, keeled, almost equal, permanent; pro- 

 per of the lateral flowers one-leafed, membranaceous, chan- 

 nelled at the back, opposite to the leaflets of the com- 

 mon spathe, and hidden by them. Corolla: petals three, 

 obcordate, from erect spreading, twice as large as the peri 



