466 Domestic Notices. 



in tliis case for t^o roaaons : first, to avoid the appearance of a notoriety- 

 i^eeking I am conscious of not wanting, and which has ah-cady disgusted 

 me ; and second, because the reason for my taking up Mr. L. could not ap- 

 pear without my avowing myself as the author of the original paper in the 

 Florist No. 8. That paper was written to appear as the Editor's. On call- 

 ing at tlis office one morning, the Editor was suffering from severe illness, 

 and not to keep the printer at a stand, I wrote that paper there for him, 

 merely marking it with an *. I did not wish to take back credit which I 

 had voluntarily given to another, yet had sufficient interest in it to look af- 

 ter its honor. Hence you will understand the origin of the " Beta" letter. 

 In reply to that letter, and your remarks thereon, a writer comes forward, 

 and, like a young lady just loose from a boarding school, is "surprised at 

 our ignorance." When we complain — perhaps indignantly, and, if so, most 

 certainly justl3' — we are " uncourteous" ; and, if we dare to appeal from the 

 presumptuous judgment of one individual to the authority from whence he 

 professes to derive his information, we are " impeaching his veracity" ! I 

 stated in my paper tliat, in the system of glazing I described, the rebates 

 were first painted, the glass laid in, each pane fastened in with tin glazing 

 brads, and then painted in instead of puttied. Mr. Leuchars says this is an 

 old and well known system, and that he is " surprised at our ignorance." 

 Instead of repeating our demands on Mr. L. for evidence, let us sit down 

 quietly in the corner lilie good boys, confessing our ignorance, assured that 

 it cannot be otherwise since Mr. Leuchars says so. 



Since we are on the subject of glazing, I may as well observe, that glaz- 

 ing " without putty" is not new, as probably you and every other person 

 acquainted with the history of iron houses are aware. In these sti'uctures 

 expensive sheets of plate glass are very commonly used, and provision has 

 to be made against breakage, through the expansion and contraction of tlie 

 metal by changes of temperature. In these cases the glass is screwed in, 

 a tliin plate being laid over the glass. As I like to give references, I will 

 clioose one in Mr. Leuchars' own district, as he may probably hive seen it; 

 I refer to the Marquis of Tweedale's, at Yester, under the management of 

 Mr. William Shearer. If he has not seen this, he may have been in Lon- 

 don and seen the system carried out in the large Palm house at Kew. I 

 have paid much attention to the various systems of glazing for some years, 

 and if the system I liave styled American has been published before in any 

 respectable journal, I liave Angularly overlooked it, and when pointed out 

 to me, glial], like Mr. L., " be surprised at my ignorance." — Beta. Phila- 

 delphia. 



Our'Orchid liousc, tliough it appears to the observer as an example, hav- 

 ing no putty on the outside, is not exactly so, as the glass was originally 

 bedded in putty. 



Beautiki-l Gramti: Tower in Mount Audurn. — A lofty and beau- 

 ful tower of hewn Quincy granite, is being erected on the summit of the 

 highest eminence in Mount Auburn, not far from the Chapel. It is to be 

 sixty -two and a half feet in height; the diameter at the base is twenty feet, 

 and at the top it will be fifteen feet. At tlie height of forty feet, six inclies, 



