Polmaise Method of Heating Hothouses. 149 



lowing circumstance : — A church in the neighborhood of Pol- 

 maise, (a small country seat, near Sterling, in Scotland,) was 

 heated by a hot air furnace, similar to those used in warming 

 dwellinghouses, &c., in this country. The gardener examined 

 it, and thought it a good plan to warm his hothouses ; ac- 

 cordingly he applied something of the kind to heat his vinery, 

 arranged as I have described above. The thing was entirely 

 new to the worthy gardener, as well as to his employer, Mr. 

 Murray, who sent an account of it to Dr. Lindley, the editor 

 of the Gardeners^ Chronicle. The Dr. extolled the system 

 to the skies, and induced various individuals to adopt it, and 

 those who took the unpardonable liberty of judging its mer- 

 its, from experience, he straightway denounced as interested 

 or dishonest men. The gardening community arose in arms, 

 and waged war against their theoretical foes, and not one 

 single gardener of note, in England, was found to support the 

 sinking reputation of Polmaise. At last the so-called origi- 

 nators were confounded at the buzz they had excited in the 

 practical hive. No controversy (connected with gardening) 

 was ever carried on with so much virulence, and no system 

 has been so severely tested to prove its merits and defects. 

 Gardeners, amateurs and all, entered the arena of experiment, 

 discussion and controversy; still its promoters would not 

 flinch from their original position. The colimms of the 

 Chronicle were under Dr. Lindley's command, and right or 

 wrong, he would support it, without however adducing one 

 single argument in its favor, — except ripe grapes in Septem- 

 ber, — a period, forsooth, when grapes would ripen without 

 artificial heat at all. Yet its cheapness and simplicity were 

 its ignus fatuus of attraction, and for several successive win- 

 ters many, blinded by the misrepresentations of its ad- 

 vocates, went to work, Polmaising their greenhouses, &c., 

 tearing down their furnaces and flues, and converting them 

 into hot air stoves, and drains, and other appurtenances of 

 Polmaise. Yet, after a short trial, and a good deal of plant 

 killing, they one and all abandoned the system with disgust. 

 Now it appears very strange, that while Dr. Lindley was ad- 

 vocating the merits of Polmaise, with the whole power of 



