aS iene ee ieee 
Se 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 607 
secondaries 6d. We will hereafter give more exact 
results when we have drained some fields in this 
way. —M, 
‘Tr fearful storm which devastated some of our 
midland counties the other day has fallen with sad 
violence upon a most respectable market-gardener at 
Norwich. The large forcing establishment of Mr. 
Bell, of Bracondale, has been almost annihilated, his 
loss being estimated at 8000/., against which it was 
impossible to insure ; at least, the Hailstone Insurance 
Office, which is now beginning to make itself known, 
had not become so established in public opinion as to 
eall upon indivi t Ives of the secu- 
rity it professes to offer. A calamity of this sort is 
overwhelming. Mr. Bell, a substantial yeoman, one 
of that class which forms the main-stay of the country, 
is ruined—by no errors of his own, but notwith- 
standing his honest well-directed industry, by @ 
terrible visitation of the elements, unless those who 
can feel for such disasters will assist him. His 
friends and neighbours who know him best, have, as 
the Norwich papers:tell us, subscribed already 750/. 
towards the restoration of his establishment. His 
London friends have also set on foot a subscription, as 
our advertisements explain; and we hope that the 
liberality of Norwich will not be greater than that of 
the country generally. 
ON CONSERVATORY CLIMBERS, &c. 
(Concluded from page 588.) : 
The first plant that I would turn out into the bed in 
this pit would be Bignénia venusta, the best of all the old 
stove climbers. I am aware of the prevalent opinion that 
this plant requires a strong bottom-heat to flower it ; but 
this opinion is altogether untenable, and a mere delusion. 
In the hard winter of 1829-30, I had a young one planted 
out ina front border, and trained up within three inches of 
the glass, Through a temporary defect in the heating 
apparatus we could not keep the house warmer than from 
40° to 45° for several weeks, and the inside of the glass 
was often encrusted with ice in the morning. The Big- 
nénia did not seem to be much affected by this treatment ; 
it grew away freely next “summer, and by the following 
February every joint of the last year’s wood was covered 
with bloom, and the plant continued to flower annually 
early in the spring, with no better treatment than being 
wermer in winter. 
The next climber would be Echites suberecta, from 
Jemaica. This lovely climber flowers profusely in the 
stove on the ourrent year’s growth. Like the Vine, it 
ryequires a great deal of room, and to be spur-pruned in 
vinter. When in flower, itis a fair representation of that 
geat desideratum, a> brilliant yellow Convolvulus, or Ipo- 
toea,—what a beautiful contrast it would make with the 
Somoza Learii on the rafters of the conservatory! Then 
te Allamanda cathartica, more hardy than the last, also 
pwers on the current year’s wood from June to October, 
ad requires therefore to be very closely pruned, and kept 
ymewhat dry in winter. After that, Stephanotus flori- 
undus, the easiest of all the recent introductions to 
ianage, as sweet as the Cape Jasmine, and, like it, pure 
rhite. The delicious fragrance of the old Perguldria odo- 
atissima claims for it a place in this selection. It does 
iot require much room ; its flowers are of no beauty, an 
t should be trained on the same rafter as the Stephanotus, 
After these comes the Combretum purptireum, which 
jowers from April to November, if the shoots are occa- 
sonally stopped through the growing season; and as it 
Yooms on the current year’s growth, it requires to be 
osely pruned in winter, The Honorable and very Reve- 
nd the Dean of Manchester, who has adopted this sys- 
tm for some time, leaves the head of the Combretum in 
e conservatory all the winter. By this system only can 
e beautiful Beauméntia grandiflora be successfully 
ywered. Mr. Brewster, gardener to Mrs. Wray, Chei- 
nham, is the most successful cultivator of this fine 
ant, flowering it on the side spurs and on the young 
ood also. Attempts are now being made in some 
’ the Metropolitan establishments to flower the Beau- 
‘6ntia in the stoves, but this will not be. For ten 
zars I tried all conceivable means to bring it to flower in 
le stove without effect; but by the above system it 
owers as freely and regularly as a Pelargonium. 
Next come the stove and half-stove Passion-flowers, a 
ribe, of all others, the easiest to manage. One or two of 
bese will be enough to plant permanently in the pit, as 
he less strong kinds may be grafted or inarched on them: 
ay, Passiflora quad laris, a mag) it, free bloom- 
ng plant, on which kermesina, Loudonii, and race- 
Nosa, might be worked. P. alata also might be tried ; in 
the pit it is a most shy bloomer, very much like the quad- 
tangularis in general appearance, but with larger and deeper 
Coloured flowers. These two species are often confounded 
With each other. I have grown them both for the last 15 
years, and the only clue 1 can give for their identity when 
hot in flower, is the glands on the foot-stalks of the leaves ; 
quadrangularis having invariably four greenish uniform 
glands, while alata has only two of a yellowish tint : this 
will be a sure guide to purchasers. Anyone fond of rich 
foliage may plant P. ligularis, but its flowers are no better 
than those of the common one, _P, holosericea is rather 
Pretty, and there are others more curious than ornamental 
such as vespertilio, with its bat-wing-like leaves; foetida, 
with its curious fringe-work inclosing the flower, &c. The 
new Passiflora fragrans, or Middletonia, belongs to the 
Same section as the common blue Passion-flower, which it 
much resembles; but it is a half-stove {plant, and the 
flowers are deliciously fragrant, which will give it a place 
everywhere, 
There are many others which might be mentioned, but 
T have run to too great a length already. I may, however, 
be allowed a word or two about greenhouse climbers. 
Bignénia Cherere has long been kept in the stove, but it is 
a true greenhouse plant, and, like all the Bigndnias, does 
not bear much pruning, unless indeed you prune them like 
a Gooseberry bush, without spurring, so that what you 
take away is cut close to the old wood, and what you leave 
is trained at full length. Tacsénia pinnatistipula does not 
bear the heat of a light greenhouse in summer: the only 
way to do good with it is to take it out through the front 
glass and train jt outside, where it may remain till Christ- 
mas ; then it may be closely pruned and wintered inside. 
This is the way I propose, and have practised with the rest 
of the conservatory climbers, after introducing the stove 
ones as above: the principle is the same in both cases. 
Itis true i have not yet flowered all the plants which I 
recommend for this system, but I am so well acquainted 
with their habits that I have no fears as to the result.— 
Beaton. 
AGRICULTURAL PESTS—Doppzr, Broomrare. 
I sEnp you some specimens in flower of Cuscuta 
epilinum, which appears to have thoroughly established 
itself in our Flax-fields. Your readers will find a notice 
of it (by Babington) in the ‘ Journal of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society,’’ Vol. ii., p. 63. I have lately seen it 
referred to in some journals, as our old Cuscuta Europea ; 
but this is a mistake. I have wrapped up these specimens 
in the stems of another species of Cuscuta, to which I beg 
to direct the attention of agriculturists. It is now two or 
three years since I first received a dried bundle of this 
Cuseuta, which had then flowered ; it was sent to me from 
the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmund’s, and described 
as a pest hitherto unknown to agriculturists, and which 
was doing considerable injury to the Clover. I observed 
that it closely resembled our Cuscuta epithymum ; but 
not having seen it inits fresh state, I felt uncertain 
whether it might not be some newly-imported and distinct 
species. I showed it to Babington, who has noticed it in 
his lately-published “ Boy ” as a possible variety of 
C. epithymum, which he has called B. trifolii, at the same 
time expressing a doubt of jits identity with this species. 
About a fortnight or three weeks ago, one of my neigh- 
bours invited my attention to what he considered to be a 
novelty in this parish. Upon accompanying him to a 
Clover-field, he pointed out to me several circular patches, 
about two yards in diameter, covered with the stems of 
this very Cuscuta. The appearance was as if a quantily 
of fine, closely-tangled wet catgut. had been carelessly 
thrown down upon the Clover., The Clover plants below 
it were either dead or much injured, and it was evidently 
spreading itself rapidly in all directions. I see no ap- 
pearance of flowers on it as yet; but I have transplanted 
some to my own lawn, where it has taken possession, and 
hope soon to be able to give a better account of what 
species it may really be. I find (as might, a priori, have 
been expected) that it attacks Lucerne also. My object 
in directing the attention of your agricultural readers to 
this parasite is, to advise them of the propriety of eradi- 
cating it as speedily as possible wherever it may happen 
to make its appearance. It has certainly been introduced 
into this country with foreign seed ; and unless some care 
be taken to check its progress, we shall soon have it as 
thoroughly established among our Clover, as the too-much- 
neglected pest, the Orobanche minor, has already become. 
A simple means of checking this Cuscuta is, to mow the 
spots where it has attached itself to the Clover, and carry 
the mown plants entirely away. I see that the farmer in 
whose field it has here shown itself, has been content with 
merely raking it off; he has consequently left a con- 
siderable number of fragments\ behind, which are still 
attached to the Clover, and aré again spreading in all 
directions. 
Having alluded to the Orobanche minor, I may men- 
tion that this plant has also been slightly noticed in the 
+ Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,’’ Vol. i., Pp. 
173. Upon finding it in our fields when I first came to 
reside here, I asked the farmers whether they attempted 
to keep it under. I found that some of them had never 
noticed it, whilst others who had observed it were not 
aware of what it was, As I knew that its seeds are 
extremely minute and abundant, and that on some parts 
of the Continent it prevails so much that Clover cannot 
be grown there, I recommended them always to have it 
pulled whilst in flower, such a process requiring very 
little time or trouble. JI was glad to find that the neigh- 
bour who took me to see the Cuscuta had ever since 
adopted this practice, and no longer allows the Oro- 
banche to perfect its seed in his fields. May I venture 
to extend my recommendation to all farmers to fol- 
low so prudent anexample? I would also recommend 
those who are unacquainted with the singular habits of 
this description of parasite, to dig up a plant or two 
which may happen to be attacked by it. They will be 
able, with a little care, to find the swollen base of the stem of 
the Orobanche attached to some one of the wiry fibres of 
the root of the Clover; and if they will allow a Botanist to 
explain, they, will understand that, as the Orobanche has 
no healthy leaves of its own capable of supplying it with 
nourishment, it borrows, or rather steals, the proper juice 
which has been prepared in the leaves and has descended 
into the roots of the Clover. It is thus that it is enabled 
to perfect its strange and lurid-looking flowers, to ripen 
its own seed at the expense of the valuable forage which 
is destined to fill the stomachs of his cattle, in order that 
the farmer may afterwards be able to fill his own pockets. 
The Cuscuta hasa like bad habit, only with this differences 
that it attacks the stems and not the roots of the Clover. 
As both plants are readily propagated by seed, they should 
be watched and never allowed to perfect their seed. It is 
very possible that their seed may lie dormant in the land 
for a long period, until a fitting opportunity shall arise for 
its germinating ; and at all events it may be widely dis- 
seminated with the seed of the Clover itself wherever the 
two are housed together—J. §. Henslow, Hitcham, 
Suffolk, 25th August, 1843. 
THE KILLOGIE; 
A SUBSTITUTE FOR FERMENTING MATERIALS IN HOT- 
BEDS, AND FOR PIPES, FLUES, &c. IN HOTHOUSES. 
Some time ago I sent Mr. Loudon a plan for a hotbed 
adapted to the very poorest class of country cottagers ; 
built without an iron nail or a brick, and calculated to 
generate ‘‘ bottom-heat”” and ‘‘top heat,’’ moist or dry, 
without pipes, flues, hot-water, or steam—and in the 
absence, too, of all fermenting materials; by the agency 
of fire only, and that in its simplest and cheapest form ; 
on the open hearth, a grate or “ingle ’’ in the centre of 
achamber, or killogie—or, in other words, by radiant heat, 
as it hath from time immemorial been used in the parching 
of corn, &c. The readers of the ‘‘ Gardeners’ Magazine ” 
in general gave Mr. Loudon little praise for this communi- 
cation, and in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, Dr. Lindley 
passed it over by saying “ in our simplicity we took it for 
a hoax.” I will now beg leave to trespass on your valu- 
able columns a little, whilst I attempt to show that this 
system of heating, so far from being a hoax, will be found 
the simplest, cheapest, and the most efficient, and more- 
over the oldest; for thousands of reasonable men have 
borne testimony to its merits for ages past as well as at 
the present day; and if I were to ask the miller or malt- 
man how it happened that whilst he eagerly adopted every 
improvement in the machinery connected with the grinding 
and dressing of the corn, &c., he still continued to dry the 
grain in the old way on the kiln over an open fire; or, in his 
own words, over the “ingle ’’ in the “‘ killogie,’’ notwith~ 
standing all the heating apparatus, new and old, approved, 
improved, and re-proved in hot water and steam, I think 
the miller or maltman could easily show that the perfect 
manner in which the ingle and killogie maintain an 
intense heat at a small expense, leaves little room for 
improvement in the parching of corn or malt; and where, 
I would ask, in the whole round of gardening is there 
required a temperature so high as would be sufficient to 
parch corn ina few hours? Here, then, is a simple fire- 
grate in the centre of a cubic room, set up for a few 
shillings and managed by the man that feeds the miller’s 
swine, or some equally unscientific hand, doing the work 
of heating the kiln-room or hothouse, and the corn 
or hotbed to an extent that a hot-water apparatus worth 
100 guineas would not be equal to; and I question 
whether the powers of hot water could in any reasonable 
space of time prepare grist for the millhopper, and if it 
could, the intricacy of many hot-water apparatus, and 
the cost of all, would very likely exclude them from the 
kiln of the maltman or miller. 
Therefore, instead of condemning the miller for not 
heating his kiln or hothouse by hot water or steam, as. 
gardeners do, let us see whether he has not a better system 
than they, and if this can be proved we are come to the 
point, namely, to consider the propriety of borrowing it ; 
for gardening now-a-days embraces such a host of men, so 
differently situated as regards their means and their wants, 
and in such various localities, that whilst many will be 
found glad enough to try a cheap and ready way of 
obtaining heat for the culture of exotics, others more 
highly favoured will no doubt say, and that truly, that 
there is nothing like plenty of strong cast-iron pipes an 
hot-water for heating all sorts of hothouses; but I could 
name many very respectable men, who, though they know 
the better way right well, have a strong reason for not 
trying it, namely, the want of funds for that purpose, and 
where this is not the case, short leases prevent many from 
building permanent structures, in the same way as they 
pitch a tent where they would not rear a castle. To such 
the ingle and killogie are well adapted, and for such I write. 
T am quite surprised that fire for bottom-heat, as well as 
for top-heat, is not more generally in use wherever heat is 
wanted. I should first try fire, as the most likely agent 
to raise it effectually, and whoever has experienced the 
cleanliness and constancy of that mode of obtaining it for 
horticultural purposes will not be easily persuaded to return 
to the litter, with the labour and uncertainty of raising it 
from fermenting materials—not to speak of the cost, which 
in most cases is double that of fuel ; yet, strange as it is, 
there seems a general notion that linings of litter and large 
beds of dung are cheaper and better for hotbeds than flues 
and fuel; these ideas, however, are fast wearing out, and I 
hope the day is not far distant when it will be as rare to 
see a man injuring good manure by making hotbeds and 
linings of it, as it is now-a-days to see a man winnowing 
corn between the opposite open doors of the barn, as our 
fathers did ; and though this wind was free of cost in the 
first instance, yet the process became expensive in labour 
and loss of time, whilst the supply of wind was always 
capricious and uncertain, and such is precisely the case 
in obtaining heat from fermentation 3 it is equally uncon- 
trollable, and uncertain as the wind. 
But mark the change ina few years’ experience: artificial 
wind from the fanner, impelled by machinery, can now be 
regulated in its duration and force to the greatest nicety ; 
and, moreover, is at command by day or night, within 
doors ; at a moment’s notice it begins, and the director, 
of the work can suspend its services bya word, The 
same may be said of heat, when supplied by fire; kindle 
