* 
854 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
[Dec. 26, 
berries, and carefully trained each runner, reserving 
only the best plants, and to these I gave every eneou- 
ragement, and obtained a fine bed of healthy stocky 
plants, aud in the following year they all produced fruit, 
but neither of them having any resemblance whatever 
to the original Wellington ; all were a white, pithy 
kind, and to which I have frequently found other kinds 
degenerate. I think the most suitable kinds for general 
cultivation are Keens’ Seedling for an early supply, 
the old Pine for a general erop, and the Elton Pine for 
a late crop ; but I must add I know of none better than 
a dish of fine well ripened Hautbois. The most extra. 
ordinary crops I ever saw grown have been in a nur- 
sery garden close by me ; for the last 18 years I have 
known the beds (upwards of half an acre) never to have 
failed, and I understand they have been constantly 
grown there many years previous without the slightest 
attention, except merely raking off the weeds and rub- 
bish, and when the beds have become too foul, digging 
them up immediately after the crop, and replanting in 
the autumn following. I have never observed any ten- 
dency among them to degenerate. The sorts now grown 
are Keens’ Seedling, and the old Pine, formerly the 
latter kind only. The soil is a deep rich rather tender 
loam, and partially shaded by ‘fruit trees.— George 
Wood, Rochford, Nov. 23. 
Aphis Rape.—t see by my journal that this insect 
swarmed everywhere last autumn in the Turnip fields, 
On the 13th of Oct. this Turnip-louse (or Smother-fly, 
as it is ealled by the farmers), was abundant in houses, 
and on both sides of my Vine leaves, but it did not 
pierce them for nourishment. I named it Aphis Rapz, 
in the 3d vol. of the * Royal Agricultural Journal? 
published in 1842, and also gave magnified figures of 
the sexes to illustrate its history. As it breeds upon 
the Turnip-leaves, I cannot see any reason for super- 
seding the name of Rapze, even if it were not contrary 
to the law of priority established by men of science to 
prevent confusion, This insect, which has lately been 
noticed under the name of A. vastator, may be univer- 
sally distributed, but it is not destined, I apprehend, to 
feed on various vegetables, and in all probability is e 
fined to edible Cruciferze. I, therefore, believe it is 
only found accidentally upon the Potato,-as it i 
in the autumn upon fevery green leaf that falls 
in its way during its migrations.—J. Curtis. [Qu.: 
Does Mr. Alfred Smee.know Aphis Raps when he 
sees it 2] 
Polmaise Heating.—It will be satisfactory to Mr. 
Meek, who has so generously given the public the 
benefit of his talents, to state that Mr. Plumridge, of 
Bletchingley, has}built:a stove and apparatus for me, to 
heat a lean-to greenhouse, 33 feet: long, and that it 
answers in every way. The colder the.external atmo- 
sphere the greater is the draft; and in the late very 
severe frost, the temperature of the further end of the 
house was easily regulated to 45° average, with less 
consumption than a bushel of coke and cinders per day. 
—G. E. H., Ramsgate, Dec. 21. 
Hygrometers.—The annexed is a simple contrivance 
for measuring the moisture in hothouses. Tts inexpen- 
siveness and efficiency for ordinary purposes may render 
it aceeptable where more complicated instruments are 
not attainable. Procure a thin piece of board, iths, 
well dried and painted, 18 ins. long, and 9 ins. broad, 
and nail on in front, within an inch of its lower length- 
way edge, exaetly in the centre, aud at right angles, a 
strip of the same thickness, 2 ins. wide and 12 ins. long. 
Within an inch of the top of the cross piece at each end 
a brass nail is to be driven, and stretched across from 
nail to nail is a bit of well-twisted whipeord in a per- 
fectly wet state, having been previously soaked in a so- 
lution of common salt and water ; the cord is not to be 
drawn very tight, but merely gently brought into a 
straight line ; to this a fine bit of silk thread, about 
11 ins. long, well waxed, is to be attached, and sus- 
pended from it a small glass weight, such as is used in 
common wheel barometers. A glass tube is to be 
affixed to the narrow <tt'p of wood, of the length-of the 
strip (i.e. 12 inches), of a calibre just sufficient to 
allow of free play to the glass weight. The strip of 
wood should have a fine stout piece of paper pasted 
over its whole front before fixing the tube. Upon this 
a mark is to be made at the lower extremity of the 
Low weight now placed within the tube, which will in- 
icate the extreme point of saturation of the cord, it 
being thoroughly wet. The nails must be of sufficient 
length to allow the cord to have free play, and the 
silk thread to be exactly plumb with the tube. The 
instrument must then be placed before a fire, so as gra- 
dually to drive off all the móisture from the string. 
The little weight, as the string dries, will descend into 
the tube, aud when perfeetly dry, a line is to be drawn 
onthe paper immediately below the weight, which will 
indicate extreme dryness. A scale of tolerable accuracy 
May afterwards be drawn on the paper from between 
these two points, It does not answer to have this con- 
trivance as a fixture in the stove ox Orchid house ; 
but whenever required, it ean be taken into either 
house for about an hour, by which time the string wal 
have absorbed a sufficiency of moisture to indicate the 
degree of humidity of the atmosphere. I should 
r d when the inst; is not required, that 
it be always kept in a very dry place ; and should the 
cord be damp in any degree, when about to make use of 
the instrument, it will be as well to place it before the 
fire for a few minutes, to entirely dissipate all moisture. 
One on a smaller scale than this answers the purpose ; 
but this is the rough kind of thing which may be got 
n- 
costly and delicate hygrometers cannot be had.—R. M. 
Polmaise Heating.—Lhave made an experiment on 
à very small seale (in a forcing house 16 feet long by 8 
feet wide), the results of which I send, together with a 
plan of the house and situation. I may say here that 
the situation limited me in the size of the house, and I 
am aware that the furnace (a cast iron box of 9 inches 
wide by 11 inches high, and 2 feet long) is sufficient to 
warm a range of building much larger, probably four or 
five times the space. The thermometer has ranged 
during the last month from 56° at 10 o'clock at night, 
to 50° in the morning ; the last few days the tempera- 
ture has been kept lower, from 509 to 459, the varia- 
tion being the same. Together with this equal tempe- 
rature, there is a steady bottom heat of at least 709 in 
the plunging pit. These two advantages show. a large 
balance in favour of the Polmaise system ; although in 
an economical point of view there is a great waste of 
the warmth to be derived from the smoke. But I acted 
Article, and discarded the smoke altogether, In esti- 
mating the value of the different systems, it must be 
is | borne in mind that with hot water pipes, as in Polmaise, 
the value of the smoke is lost; while comparing 
Polmaise with smoke flues, a purer and more lasting 
atmospheric heat is obtained, plus the bottom-heat. 
The cost of the setting the furnaces and flues was, per- 
haps, a few shillings more than a smoke flue would 
have cost ; because the work was new to the bricklayer, 
and he often had to stand still for instructions, Ex- 
pense will be sayed, and failure avoided, only by the 
master making himself thoroughly acquainted with the 
principle and details, before he sets men to work. The 
water-pan I have placed in the neck of the flue running 
from the hot-air chamber into the hot-air reservoir 
under the plunging pit ; an old furnace door that was 
at hand is fitted in, and the water-pan put through it, 
so that it can be moved nearer to or farther from the 
hot-air chamber, as experience may guide ; and the 
water is.supplied through the door instead of by a pipe 
through the roof, as I remember was the case in one of 
your published plans, Below is .a-plan and.explanations. 
up by anyone with very little trouble or expense, and | 
it will be found to answer very fairly, where the more | 
upon the very decided advice yon gave in a Leading | 
face over the furnace available for an air-chamber 
being very limited, seemed to present an obstacle to the 
attainment of much heating surface. Mr. Lewis imme- 
diately suggested a second or ‘middle plate, an inch or 
two shorter than the air-chamber, which gives twice 
the distance for the air to travel through. "The upper, 
or third plate, has an aperture in it, on which is placed 
a small shaft, 3 feet in height; and about one hour 
after the fire was lighted we had the satisfaetion of 
finding the air rushing into the house ata temperature 
of 2209. The only aperture by which ‘the cold air is 
supplied is within a few inches of the shaft; thus 
proving the simplicity and great power of this new:ap- 
plication, I believe, of the system, as the whole of the 
plates and the two air-chambers are only 6 inches im 
depth. My old flues and furnace remain as usual, the 
only alteration being the taking off the brick erown of 
the furnace, and substituting an iron plate. The fol. 
lowing is the temperaturé of my houses, three in 
number, and about 75 feet in length, communicating 
with each other by doors only :— 
Tuesday night, 11 o'clock, Sta o'clock neat Mornings. 
6 feet from the fire ... us 8"; T3 5429 
25 " S 
40 
» ” e 
x 
End dFenottit: house, the Avs 
being between the houses ... 87 ve sa ak 
The thermometer ‘being with me-the same at 1l at 
night as at.6 in the morning, viz., 259.—.J. Brampton, 
A lbion-road, Stoke Newington, Dec. 17. 
Foreign Correspondence, 
Constantinople, October 25th, 1846. — Crossing 
the Black Sea from Odessa to this place the con- 
trast is as great in agriculture as in everything else: 
-~if the word agriculture may be applied to the routine 
process by which the steppes are made so productive— 
for here both agriculture and production seem to be 
wanting. It is almost inconceivable that a town like 
onstantinople, covering such an immense extent of 
coast,and often to a considerable breadth with its dense 
population should terminate so abruptly in unprodue- 
tive wastes on the European as wellas on the Asiatic 
side. From the suburbs west of the Seven Towers, al- 
most to Bujuhdéré, a distance of near 14 miles, 
fhere is an uninterrupted line of building along the 
European shore, and for several miles the houses are 
closely crowded on each other to the breadth of one, two, 
or even three or four miles, and, with the exception of the 
palaces of the sultan and the grandees, the tenants as. 
closely packed in the houses as in any capital in Europe ; 
but I never saw any large town where the surrounding 
country was less made to supply its wants. As soon ag 
you leave'the last houses, you come into heaths and 
rough pastures covered with Poterium spinosum, and 
other dwarf shrubs, furnishing a scanty food to a few 
herds of oxen or flocks of sheep. In a few valleys 
opening on the Bosphorus, or on the Sea of Marmora, 
are some small meadows and kitchen gardens now con- 
taining little but Tomatoes, Aubergines, Botile-gourds, 
Cabbages and weeds, About Scutari, and in a few 
places along the Bosphorus, are vineyards and orchards 
from whence Grapes for eating, and other fruits, are 
sent to the markets of Constantinople, and in the inte- 
rior a small patch of young eorn, or of ploughed ground, 
may be met with here and there, but beyond that Con- 
a. Ash-pit and furnace. The furnace is.a -cast-iron box to 
prevent the escape of smoke; cost 24s. Probably fire-brick 
sides and an iron top, with the ends returned, would do as weil, 
bbb. Hot-air chamber, leading from - 
co. Cold-air drains, the sides supported. with Elm boards, 
instead of brick, 1 foot below the floor, 
dd. Substruction of the plunging pit: open brick-work, 
serving as a reservoir of warm air, from whence it flows into 
the house at 
ee. Apertures. One brick out. Let it be the top one, else 
you have more bottom-heat than you want, and too little in the 
house. 
ff. Neck of flue leading from 5 to d, in-which place the 
water-pan. 
Doorway; h, chimney, outside the house; turn of the 
Section of the-Vean-to,'containing the furnace, de. 
a. Ash-pit and furnace. 
b. Hot-air chamber, covered with a brick 
arch that is covered with sand; then 
come the slates; then more sand, 
and the outside covering, o, is & sheet 
of prepared zinc, 
IW,S. 
Polmaise Heatiza.—Having ‘had the opportunity of 
œ stêm of heating carried out by 
Seeing the Polmaise sy. | ou 
Mr. Kendall, I perceived $o juch "advantage in it ‘as 
i mg it to my own 
decided me, on immediately apply." 
houses, and for that purpose I called in H6 Assistance 
chimney in house; 4, place for fuel, 
9f Mr. Lewis, builder, of Stamford-hill, who jaa devoted 
much consideration to the subject, I wished to “Ply 
the new plan to my old furnace and flues ; and, the sur- | 
ple is entirely supplied with provisions brought 
from a distance by water ; mostly from: the Black Sea. 
The corn is chiefly from the northern provinces towards 
the Danube; the best fruit and vegetables from the- 
coast and islands of the Sea of Marmora. 
'fhe soil of this part ef Rumelia, as well as of the 
opposite Asiatic coast, is, it is true, in many places very: 
poor,and would nowhere produce fine erops without 
care, as in South Russia; but a great deal of it might 
certainly be made productive, as is evident by the vigor- 
ous growth of undershrubs, as well as of the few trees- 
scattered here and there, and which resist the fury of 
the elements even in very exposed situations. Those 
planted by man are in general Plane trees, near where 
there is water, Cypresses near tombs, Stone Pines near- 
habitations and in gardens, with a few Ashes, Elms, and. 
sometimes Limes in the valleys ; but on the summit of 
Bulgurla, a hill above Scutari, the highest in 
the neighbourhood, and the most exposed to wind is 
a small group consisting of two spreading Cypresses, an 
Ash, and two or three Alders ; and not much lower a. 
few Oaks, Stone Pines, and Planes all evidently very 
old and yet retaining a great deal of vigour. The Plane 
tree is everywhere the Oriental one, and attains. an 
enormous size. One in one-of the:courts of the Seraglio 
measures 42 feet round the stem at 5 feet from the 
round, but is now fast decaying, and is quite hollow. 
The celebrated Seven Brothers of the meadows of 
Bujuhdéré, have now suffered much, partly from age and 
natural injuries, but still more from the-hand of man. 
These singular trees are Oriental Planes of immense 
height, so grown together .at the bottom that: it is. 
impossible to say how many there originally. were, 
There are now nine stems, and s tenth is. said to have 
diéd but lately, and they form at present four groups; 
of which this is a rough sketch. Nos. 1 arid 2 are each, 
divided into three, at the height of from 2 to 4 feet 
from the ground, and No. 4 into two stems, likewise at. 
a few feet from the ground ; No. 3 is a single‘stem, but 
the roots or base of the trunks of ‘Nos. 1, 2, and 3, are: 
so intimately grown together to the height of:several 
inches above ground that they all appear to spring from 
one root, like the stems that spring up from one root in 
‘a copse wood ; No. 4 is a little removed from No. 3, 
but there appears to have been q stem between them 
