540 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Aue. 5, 
p. 228 ; to which I may add that I have the sanction of my 
worthy employers to prepare grafts here after the 
manner I suggest, and that I shall be glad to send 
them, carriage free, to London next October, in time to 
be packed for the November overland mail. I may further 
add, that I once unpacked a case of plants that had been 
lying seven months in a hot warehouse at Vera Cruz, and 
that some of the woody plants packed in saw-dust were 
still alive, after being packed full nine months; and I 
have little doubt but grafts of two years ald wood, if 
packed after the manner of those sent to India by the 
overland route, and placed in a large case of dry saw-dust, 
or in a bale of cotton, might be sent to India or China, 
round the Cape of Good Hope, in the bottom of a merchant 
vessel ; and if care were taken not to excite them too much 
at first, there would be little danger of their success. 
In Dr. Gibson’s letter of the 27th April, 1842, (vol. ii., 
p- 539), he says, ‘ All the cuttings of the Jargonelle, &c. 
have rooted, and till the beginning of the hot season were 
flourishing. Since then they have drooped much and I 
fear they will die.’’ Now, it was natural enough to sup- 
pose that these cuttings were rooted, when they broke 
forth into leaf, but the chances are that none of them 
formed any roots at all. Indeed, from their arrival till 
the date of Dr. Gibson’s letter, there was hardly suffi- 
cient time for their rooting, even in the climate of Bom- 
bay or Calabar, supposing they had arrived in as good a 
We have all 
state as when they were packed in London. 
of us seen analogous cases at 
home; the Elm and other de- 
cidous trees, after being felled 
in the spring, break into leaf 
on the approach of summer, 
and keep green for five or 
six weeks, or till the leaves 
exhaust all the available sources 
of the parent tree, and then fade 
away, just as the above cuttings 
are reported to have done, after 
going through the same process ; 
and in all probability the fate of 
the two Golden Pippin and one 
Duchesse d’Angouléme cuttings, 
which reached Calcutta safe, will 
be reported by Dr. Griffith to 
have been the same, unless better 
precautions had been taken to 
insure their success than were 
used towards those in the nearer 
stations of Calabar or Bombay ; 
and if so, something further 
ject I began to make the same experiments here about 
this time last year, by preparing cuttings of Apples and 
Pears, which IJ planted in two aspects last November, on an 
east and north aspect—those on the north aspect are now 
a month in advance of the others. J did not think hand- 
glasses would be necessary in our cool moist climate. By 
the end of last May they began to leaf, and by the end of 
June you would have supposed by their appearance that 
they were well furnished with roots, but not a fibre was 
made at that time, and now they are only beginning to 
put out roots, and I shall send one of them along with 
this to show the state they arein. Now, if this summer 
had been as hot and dry as the last, all my cuttings would 
have perished last June, unless I kept a cool moist 
atmosphere round them under a hand-glass. 
The English reader will excuse me for going this length 
with a subject that might be privately reported to the 
parties interested, but as there may be others engaged in 
the same pursuit in other distant parts of the world to 
whom any suggestions of this nature may be acceptable, 
the pages of this widely-circulated Journal seem the best 
channel for the purpose.—D. Beaton. 
PLAN OF THE PROPAGATING-HOUSE AT 
Messrs. VEITCH’S, EXETER. 
THE accompanying are plans and sections of our new 
Propagating House, which has now been erected and in 
low and return-pipes, 
C Stoke-hole. 
bottom-heat 
must be done for the safety of 
future trials. If one might sug- 
gest a gardening hint to our 
distant friends in the East, it 
would be this:—Plant the cut- 
Transverse Section, 
A represents the Boiler, &c. 
D Plug-holes for stopping the 
circulation of hot water, if 
is required 
full work for several months, during which time it has 
more than answered our most sanguine expectations. It 
is divided, as will be seen by the plan, into two compart- 
ments, which are entered from the back through a lobby 
or small potting-room. One division we devote to propa- 
gation in general, and the other to the raising of newly- 
imported seeds; and it is at this time completely filled 
with supposed novelties from all quarters of the world, 
especially from South America, whence we have received 
them, through our collector, Mr. William Lobb. The 
house is built in the middle of a piece of ground contain- 
ing a quarter of an acre, and is inclosed with walls and 
hornbeam hedges, being so situated as not to be seen by 
visitors. It is surrounded with pits, frames, hand-glasses, 
&c., in which the young plants raised and propagated 
within the house are hardened off, and in which the 
increase of such plants as do not require the aid of a house 
or bottom-heat is also carried on, the whole forming a 
complete propagating department. The house is heated 
on Rendle’s tank system, The tank is formed of brick 
arches worked in cement, with brick sides, the whole 
being well coated with cement. The top is of slate, 
cemented down. The sides of the bed are also formed of 
brick-work. The material used for plunging in is a clean 
sharp sand, which we find retains the heat for a consider- 
able time. In one part of the bed we have put soil, 
and the cuttings planted out in it have rooted most 
rapidly. We would draw your attention particularly 
to the simple and yet 
efficient manner in 
which we regulate the 
heated water by means 
of the apertures D. 
By this contrivance 
we can heat only one 
division of the house 
at a time, or only half 
of either or both divi- 
sions ; and while all 
can be heated at one 
time, yet each bed 
may be regulated to 
a different degree of 
heat, thus forming 
four distinct beds to 
be heated as circum- 
stances may require. 
These apertures are 
formed with short 
‘ pieces of 4-inch iron 
pipe, cemented into 
the brick-work, and 
the circulation is regu- 
lated by having plugs 
to fit the pipes. This 
plan, though simple, 
only for one house or for 
e, 
E Doors for getting access to 
the plug-holes, and also 
available for steaming the 
House when required, 
H Potting-benches. 
tings 4 inches deep, in very light 
soil, and press it about them so 
close, that you could not pull 
them up without a good effort. 
The sun should not shine on 
your cuttings at any hour of the 
day ; if this shaded situation is 
we believe to be 
new, and the advan- 
tages arising from it 
must be apparent to 
if required, may at 
any time be obtained 
naturally dry so much the better 
in your hot climate, but you must 
keep the soil always moist by 
watering after the rainy season. 
As soon as signs of vegetation 
begin, place a wooden box over 
the cuttings about 15 inches high 
with the bottom taken out of 
it, and glass or strong white 
paper, oiled, used instead; this 
will give them light enough at 
this stage. In England, we 
would place a hand-glass over 
N 
Plan showing the Circulation of Water. 
by opening the doors 
at which access is 
procured to the aper- 
tures for increasing 
or diminishing the 
circulation of the 
water. Mr. Rendle 
has seen the house, 
and joins in the 
opinion expressed by 
every other person 
who has inspected it, 
that it is the most 
them, but the wooden-box is 
complete house of the 
preferable in your climate, being 
a powerfulnon-conductor of heat, 
which is just what your cut- 
kind which he has 
ever seen, and he also 
considers his tank 
tings require. 
least dampness 
box, remove it, scrape away 
system of heating to 
have been here most 
fully and efficiently 
a little of the surface-soil all 
round, and sprinkle some dry 
earth or wood-ashes in its place, 
wipe the box dry, and turn it 
over them again. Assoon as the 
carried out. From 
the trial already gl 
urhesitat- 
young shoots are from 4 to 6 in. 
long, begin to let in air by placing 
apiece of wood under one corner 
of the box sufficient to raise it up 
3 in. : but thisis a critical period. 
Ifyou see the leaves drop in the 
least you must let down the box 
again for another week, and after- 
wards begin with opening only 
one inch, which you will increase 
by degrees, as your tenderlings gain strength; but I 
should think you cannot dispense with the box altogether 
for five or six months, although you may take off the glass 
or paper top as soon as the leayes will endure a 6-inch 
opening under the box. Unless’ you have a good gar- 
dener, you should never plant your cuttings in pots, as 
they are liable to get either too%dry or too moist—the 
natural moisture of the soil is more uniform and con- 
genial for them. 
. That I might speak with more confidence on this sub. 
Plan of Construction. 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XXXI. 
Tue first step towards ensuring an effective display of 
flowers in the coming year is to make the arrangement at 
the present time, when it can be determined with the 
greatest accuracy what kinds of plants will look best in 
certain situations; for, let it be remembered, that, how- 
ever well the plants may be known, the exact—I may say 
peculiar—tint of the flowers, cannot be’ carried in the eye, 
and therefore no correct arrangement can be made at the 
and ere long wi 
entirely supersede the 
use of Tan, and all 
other fermenting ma 
terials. — J. Veitch 
and Son. 
time the plants are out of bloom. In making the arenes 
ment, the best way to proceed is to take a quantity of san 
and spread if on a table or potting-bench, of sufficient 8176 
to admit of a correct representation of the flower-garde 
being formed upon it. If your garden is on gravel, pele 
your beds, and proceed to fill them with flowers of the 
most admired colours, and if the first arrangement ais 
not please you, re-arrange until you get it to your Le 
faction. When the garden is on grass, strew the Sole 
between the beds with short grass, as it is indispensable 
