366 Notes and Gleanings. 



extent of space, or a great length of time, to grow tliis plant to perfection ; in- 

 deed, it blooms freely in a small state at every period of the year : and the colored 

 bracts are so persistent, that the plant retains its brightness of coloring for a 

 great length of time. In habit it is an erect-growing under-shrub, with subcor- 

 date or spoon-shaped acuminate leaves five to nine inches long ; the stem is 

 clothed with egg-shaped stipules ; the peduncles are slender and thread-hke, 

 bearing two small green bracts and two large cordate denticulate floral leaves 

 of a bright pink color. Within these are the male and female flowers, of a pale 

 yellow color. This is a highly ornamental plant, which may be grown to a large 

 and grand specimen for the stove, or flowered in a small state for the decoration 

 of the table. As it can be flowered at any season, it may added to the list of 

 select winter-flowering plants ; for, at this season of the year, its gray bracts will 

 be of far greater value than at any other time. As a winter-flowering plant, it 

 will need the stove ; yet it may certainly be grown and flowered successfully with 

 only warm greenhouse-treatment, as, though a stove-plant, it happens to be well 

 adapted for what is termed cool treatment. 



To the Editor of " Tilton's Journal : " — 



In the Journal for February, your correspondent " Robert Watt " refers to 

 the unusually large number of vines that died in the winter of i86S, giving as his 

 opinion, that such loss was caused by the houses not having sufficient ventila- 

 tion. I have under my charge two vineries ; both are fitted with hot-water pipes ; 

 one is used for forcing, the other as a late-house ; the vines were pruned in the 

 fall of 1867, and looked as well for a crop of fruit in 1868 as they had done for 

 fourteen years. The borders were covered as they had been with leaves from 

 the woods, and meadow-hay. I began to force in January, 1868 ; the buds 

 swelled and burst well, but were slow ; they made from fifteen to eighteen inches 

 of young wood. About this time (last of March) the late-house was started, and 

 bursting into leaf; there was a succession of cold rain-storms, which, with the 

 melted snow, penetrated through the covering of the border. It is my opinion 

 that so much cold snow-water killed the young feeding roots. The vines began to 

 die, shoot after shoot, till within a few feet of the sill. The houses were both 

 opened on every pleasant day. I let heat enough into the late-house to keep 

 the pipes from freezing: so that there was not more than ten or fifteen degrees 

 of frost in the house all winter. 



If my conclusion is correct, the only safety there is for us, is to have the 

 border covered with close-fitting shutters, that can be removed in the summer. 

 The vines in tlie forcing-house alluded to above were taken out, the border 

 renewed, and young vines planted. 



I have been expecting that this subject would have been taken up by some 

 abler pen than mine : it is a subject of some importance to grape-growers, and 

 I hope others will give their experience, so that we may find the true cause of 

 the unusual loss of vines in grape-houses in the winter of 1867 and 1868. As 

 soon as the weather became warm and settled, the vines in the late-house start- 

 ed from spurs on the lower part of the caae, and made a strong growth. 



Whitinsville, April, 1869. Gcorge Cruicks/iaid-s. 



