= 
—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
PINE PLANTS. 
M ESSRS. VEITCH ann SON have to offer a quan- 
i tity of Fruiting and Succession PINE PLANTS, princi- 
pally QUEENS, They are strong, well established, healthy 
plants, and WARRANTED CLEAN, 
e conveyance of goods by the Great Western Railway is 
ate that Messrs. VrrTOH & Son would agree for 
er them fyhiege free at any sta- 
a small extra charge to d 
tion on the above line,—Exeter, Feb. 
The Garbeuers’ Cheor 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1846. 
THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Bess sek ae Cape 
WEDNESDAY, Society of Art 
SDAY, tomologioal pa 
K? L pf Horiiediitat i o E 
UAE 91 Linnean du icai No 
FRIDAY, — 6—Botanical 
We have now the pleasure of laying before our 
readers Mr. Mrexn’s plans for Pormarse HEATING, 
in his own words :— 
“T now proceed to lay before your readers my 
plans for heating a stove-house, on simple radio- 
thermal principles. Before, however, doing so, ma, 
I be pardoned if I ask for them the most attentive 
consideration of all classes of your readers, from 
those who have expended (may I not say need- 
lessly ?) their thousands, to produce stove tempe- 
ratures, and those who have long wished in vain for 
such horticultaral luxuries ; from the learned who 
‘can understand their principles, and the unlearned 
who ean only comprehend the plans ; and I ask 
this, not because I am vain enough to think that 
they will practically accomplish in the best possible 
manner all that can be desired ; not because they 
develope to its full extent the system for which I 
am contending ; but because I believe they will to 
à certain extent attain the desired end, and because 
they embody the only natural (and as I shall with 
your permission in another paper prove), the most 
philosophical principles, by which atmospheric 
heat and moisture are to be distributed. 
* Let the outer shaded lines A represent the walls | _ 
of a span-roof stove-house, and B those of a hot 
chamber, the sides and roof of which it will be well 
to line with some non-conducting material (probably 
asphalte roofing); let the second shaded lines 
of the floor ofthe house CCCCC beneath the bark- 
bed, and extending towards the hot ehamber in the 
direction of the dotted lines is to be laid hollow, and 
its. supports so arranged, as to allow free atmo- 
spheric communication beneath it; between the 
wall of the bark-bed (extending round its three 
sides), and the Jines DDDD, is an openingsthrough 
which the air of the house may have free passage 
into the space beneath; the arrows indicate the 
direction of the atmospheric currents passing be- 
neath the floor and wall of the house into the hot 
chamber at EE, and here a small portion of the air 
is divided from the rest (as shown in plan) at F, and 
treated in the following manner :—At F are two 
dampers, No. l acting horizontally, No. 2 verti- 
cally ; by means of the latter a perfect command is 
obtained over the quantity of air supplied to the 
fire (as seen in section F 2); consequently, over the 
force of the fire itself, and by means of the hori- 
zontal damper, any portion of the air not so re- 
quired can be allowed to pass with the larger 
quantity, to be heated inthe direction of the arrows 
(see section) over the top of the iron plate G, and 
10 20 
1 pt 
beneath the slab of stone H, passing out into the 
chamber at I, and thence back into the stove-house 
at the opening K. Let L be the ash-pit (the door 
of which must fit accurately) ; M the fire-place (its 
supply-door also fitting so as to prevent the ingress 
ae from without) ; N the boiler, with flow 
ied Pipes into the trough 0; the stone slab 
bres. over the fire-place, forming the roof both 
or the Due and furnace, so that the smoke passes 
beneath it, through the flue, in the direction of the 
eurved arrows (see plan), into the chimney P, also 
to be furnished with a damper outside the hot 
chamber ; the iron plate will incessantly conduct and 
radiate the heat supplied by the burning fuel, and 
this will be as incessantly borne away by the 
ceaseless currents flowing onwards from be- 
neath the floor of the house; the water-troush 
O is to be furnished with a Screen, extend- 
ing in front and over the hot-air opening, so that 
the escape of the latter into the house will not 
fully take place till it has passed over a considerable 
portion of the surface of the water in the trough. 
| within A be the walls of a bark-bed ; that portion | 
shortly call upon your readers to reject all hot- 
water apparatus for heating purposes. 
“With regard to ventilation, I am not un- 
mindful of its importance, and though I have 
not shown the mode by which I propose to 
effect it, for fear of complicating the plans, their 
adaptation to it is most easy. Thus, it will be 
remembered, the roof of the flue is formed of 
an iron plate ; if the floor of the flue were formed 
of the same material, and beneath this a space were 
left, communicating at the end towards the chimney 
with the external air, and at the other opening into 
the hot chamber, it is evident that the fresh air 
will rush from without beneath the plate, become 
warmed, and. mixing with the other heated air in 
the chamber, will be carried into the house; the 
quantity supplied can be regulated by a damper at 
the external opening. 
* One word as to expense; this of course 
will much depend on the taste and means of 
the party erecting it; though, perhaps, I should 
agree with Mr. Ayres, that the most durable 
in these matters is the cheapest: the floor of 
the house forming the cold-air drain, three wooden 
dampers for the regulation of cold air, an iron one 
for the chimney, two slabs of cast iron (if my system 
of ventilation is adopted), a simple boiler, with 3 or 
4 feet of pipe, a tub with a ball-cock as a supply 
cistern, a wooden trough, a slab of stone, the bricks 
of the stove, and a few fire-bricks to lino the side of 
the furnace, are all that necessity requires; their 
actual expense any one ean ascertain ; their expense 
relatively to hot-water apparatus I shall leave to be 
caleulated by those who e erected such things, 
aud who, I hope, are by this time beginning to com- 
pare their cost and their worth. If I havenot made 
myself intelligible, I shall be most happy to give 
any further explanations to any persons anxious to 
try the plan, or any modification of it, who will 
communicate with me; my only desire being to see 
this system carried ont. And nothing will afford me 
greater pleasure than to see my own plans super- 
seded by others formed on the same principles, but. 
excelling in their development.” 
Two invENTIONS were produced at the meeting 
of the Horticultural Society last Tuesday, to which 
we must direct the attention of our readers. 
Y 
\; The first was a contrivance by Mr. Fry, of Black- 
q beath, for examining the roois of plants in very 
large pots. Itis nof possible to take the “ball” 
out of such pots by the usual process of inverting 
| them, and allowing the ball to drop, because they 
|are too heavy. Mr. Fry meets the difficulty by the 
| following contrivance. A pst is made with a move- 
able bottom, concave on the upper side like a 
When the ball of such a pot is to be 
examined, the latter is placed upon a heavy wooden 
| block cut into a cylindrical form, which forces up- 
| wards the moveable bottom, and carries the ball 
with it without the slightest disturbance. After the 
| roots have been examined, the pot is lifted upwards 
| till the ball is replaced, and the wooden cylinder is. 
‘removed. This little apparatus is simple an 
|effectual, and will be of service to the growers 
of specimen plants for exhibition. 
Du 
he other invention is of much more importance. 
S The value of hygrometers, that is to say of instru- 
| ments capable of indicating the amount of moisture 
present in the air, is now well known to all gar- 
|deners. Such an instrument is, indeed, as much 
wanted as a thermometer; but we have hitherto 
had nothing fit for ordinary use. Danzexy’s hygro- 
meter and the wet-bulb thermometer, the only two 
instruments now generally used, are entirely un- 
suited to garden purposes ; indeed, it is impossible to 
read off the indications of, DANIELL’S hygrometer 
| without much experience in the use of theinstrument. 
“Does not this plan, then, embody the prin- | Mr. Srumons has contrived a hygrometer which ap- 
ciples for which I am contending? does it not 
ears to embrace every point required in gardening, 
provide for a full communication of the caloric | and which is free from the objections just mentioned. 
evolved by the burning fuel to the atmosphere, 
by means of a rapidly conducting body? does 
it not provide for its radiation? does it not 
secure a full and free distribution of the caloric 
so communicated and radiated, by availing itself 
of the property which all gaseous bodies so 
powerfully possess of distributing caloric by the 
movements of their particles, in other words, by 
atmospheric currents? does it not provide for an 
hygrometric condition of the atmosphere propor- 
tionate to its temperature ; the air and the water 
deriving their heat from the same source, while the 
moisture, if desirable, can be lessened by many 
simple mechanical contrivances, such as checking 
its flow from the boiler or diminishing the Surface 
exposed? does it not insure too a full deposition 
of dew, by the saturation of the heated atmosphere 
when that atmosphere cools? But I am treading 
upon those philosophical grounds, on which I shall 
| 
He avails himself of the property which wood is 
well known to possess, of expanding in a moist, and 
contracting in a dry, atmosphere, By adapting a 
a 
al plate lik 
watch, he is able to show, with consi 
ness, the amount of moisture in the air. 
this, the dial is divided off into degrees, over which 
the index passes; when the air is dry, the wood 
contracts and pulls the index hand in one direction, 
when it is damp it expands, aud pushes it in the op- 
posite. The greatest amount of atmospheric dry- 
ness forms one extreme of the scale, and that of 
wetness the other: between these two points the 
ludex is incessantly moving, as the state of the at- 
mosphere varies. 
We have had one of these instruments under ex- 
amination for some time, and we are able to speak 
of it in the highest terms, It is so sensitive, that 
