150 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



house or place. Twelve tables, or twelve pages of an oblong folio book ruled in this way, 

 would keep a register of all the hot-houses, frames, and the open air of a garden for a year. 

 A very beautiful graphic mode (Jig. 415.) of recording the variations of temperature of 

 the open air, or of any one hot- 

 house during a year, is given 415 

 by Howard, in his Climate of 

 London, a simplification of 

 which may be adopted by the 

 curious gardener. Here the 

 indicating line waves upon a 

 circular zone, composed of ra- 

 diating lines, representing time, 

 and concentric circles repre- 

 senting degrees of heat. One 

 line represents the average tem- 

 perature of the year : all the 

 degrees exceeding the average 

 temperature are projected be- 

 yond this line towards the ex- 

 tremity of the zone ; and all 

 the degrees under the average 

 are projected from the average 

 line towards the inner circum- 

 ference of the zone. A series 

 of tables of this sort might 

 prove useful to the gardener, by 

 enabling him at all times, by 

 a simple glance, to compare the 

 present weather with that of se- 

 veral past years. Howard's nomenclature of clouds, already given (1235.), deserves 

 also the study of the gardener desirous of scientifically registering the weather. (Encyc. 

 Brit. Sup. vol. iii. art. Cloud.} 



2351. Records of the gmvtli of plants are sometimes kept to show the comparative 

 warmth and congeniality of seasons to vegetation. When that is to be done, a table 



416 



Feb. March, April. May. June. Julj. Aug. 



Briony. Kiclnejbean. 



(Jig. 416.) may be composed of horizontal lines, 

 the distance between which shall represent space 

 in feet or inches, and vertical lines, the dis- 

 tance between which shall represent time by 

 months or days. Then supposing a plant 

 (briony) beginning to push in the middle of 

 March, make a mark on the lowest line in the 

 middle of the column for that month, and trace 

 the line as the plant grows, ascending diago- 

 nally through the other months, according to 

 the progress of the shoot in feet. If a kidney- 

 bean germinates in the beginning of April, and 

 attains the height of ten feet by the first of Sep- 

 tember, then the indicatory line will pass through five vertical columns or months, and 

 through ten feet, or spaces, between the horizontal lines (as in the figure). All these books, 

 tables, and records must be kept in the office as a part of its library ; by which means, 

 when the head gardener is changed, the new-comer will the sooner become acquainted 

 with the situation and climate, his duties, and a variety of other useful circumstances. 



2352. Memorandum books. Besides the above book sand tables, it is almost unnecessary 

 to add, that various small blank books for inventories of tools, memorandums of agree- 

 ments, out of door entries lists of names, &c. will be required both by the head gardener 

 and by his different foremen. Models of all these books may be had at Harding' s 

 Agricultural Library, St. James's Street, London. 



2353. The reading library of the gardener's office should at least contain the following 

 works. One of the best Encyclopedias, and whichever one is adopted, add the Suppl. to 

 the Encyc. Brit., the best work of its kind hitherto published. The Agricultural Survey of 

 the County, and statistical account of the parish. If convenient, the surveys of all the 

 counties in the empire should be procured. The best modern Systeema Nature of the 

 time ; Turton's Linnaeus, is very imperfect, but the only one to be had at present. The 

 best Introduction to Botany, say that of Sir J. E. Smith, for technical or systematic bo- 

 tany ; and that of Keith for physiology. The best catalogues of plants, say those of 

 Sweet and Page. The best Flora Britannka for the time, say Galpine's, or the Translation 

 of Flora Britannica, by Sir J. E. Smith. Sowerby's British Botany ; his Mineralogy ; 



