234- Retrospective Criticism. 



the house, this is not done by opening the sashes in the usual way, but by 

 taking the stoppers out of openings, &c., in the drain containing the hot-water 

 pipes, and communicating with the open air." (Gard. Mag., 1840, p. 122.) 

 This passage, it should have been stated, refers only to winter treatment, the 

 article having been written in February. — Cond. 



Mr. Pcnn^s Mode of Heating at Chatsivorth. — In our Volume for 1840, 

 p. 378., we have stated that an orchidaceous house at Chatsworth is " being 

 heated by Mr. Penn," and we have given a section of the house. Mr. Penn, 

 as well as some other correspondents, has called our attention to the following 

 paragraph in the Gard. Chron. for January 30. " There is no truth in the state- 

 ment mentioned by a constant reader, that either the orchidaceous house or the 

 vast conservatory at Chatsworth is heated upon Mr. Penn's plan. We strongly 

 advise him not to adopt this much-talked-of method of heating, concerning 

 which we shall have some observations to offer in our next number." (^Gard. 

 Chron., Jan. 30. p. 73.) We were aware of the paragraph, but did not think 

 it worth notice, being satisfied of the truth of our assertion in the passage 

 to which we have above referred. Mr. Penn, however, looks upon it in a 

 different light, and requests us to state that he has heated an orchidaceous 

 house at Chatsworth, and that it has given satisfaction ; in proof of which he 

 has shown us a letter from Mr. Paxton, from which we extract the following 

 passage : " I have great pleasure in being able to express my entire satis- 

 faction as to the efficiency of heat at command, and the general working of 

 this excellent method of heating in the houses here. I perceive it is creating a 

 great stir in Loudon's Magazine, but people will continue to write about 

 what is a riddle to themselves." — (Signed) Joseph Paxton. Chatsworth Gardens, 

 Jan. 13. 1841. 



See, on the same subject, Mr. Main, in p. 208. 



Mr. Niven's Stove for various Purposes, (p. 49.) — I am surprised to find 

 that any man with the slightest pretensions to practical knowledge in any of 

 the departments of gardening should ever venture, in 1841, to propose, and 

 far less to advocate, the adaptation of one house for so many purposes ; and, 

 according to his own account, with the most sanguine expectations of success 

 in all. Should therefore the result be such as Mr. Niven holds out, and the 

 public are given to expect, we may bid farewell to any thing like extensive 

 ranges of glass being put up in future. Really one would suppose that, instead 

 of Mr. Niven having been in the habit of enlightening the horticultural world 

 with something new, either in his tasteful suitable erections as a garden 

 architect and landscape-gardener, or superior system of management, as one 

 would be led to expect from his former, and I believe present, practice as a 

 superintending practical gardener, he had just awakened out of a com- 

 fortable sleep, which he had been snugly enjoying for these last thirty or forty 

 years, and had written his article before he was quite awake ; so far does he 

 appear to be in the wake of the march of improvement on most of the topics 

 he has advanced. For example, Mr. Niven talks of the youth of queen 

 pines started at two years old ! Why, any practical gardener who knows 

 any thing at all of growing pines would rarely have a two-year-old queen 

 pine in his house ; as, under judicious management, with even the old-fashioned 

 bottom-heating medium of tan, with all the risks of burning, as it is called, 

 the queen pine will produce a better fruit, yes, a heavier fruit, and 1 will 

 vouch as well flavoured, at eighteen months as ever Mr. Niven's would ; and I 

 M'ill allow him to add another year to his too early fruiting plants, with all the 

 advantages of his bed of nutritive matter, as a medium for planting in, as well 

 as his magazine of moist heated air into the bargain. 



Again, Mr. Niven, speaking of the guava (Z'sidium C&ii\ey antnn), hopes 

 that it will prove an interesting and desirable addition to the dessert. Why, 

 Psidium Q.att\eydmim has been proved to be what he, Mr. Niven, hopes to 

 see it ; and was sent to table as a dessert fruit in the neighbourhood of Lon- 

 don, and also to the tables of many of the nobility and gentry throughout 

 England, a dozen years ago. 



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