THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



87 



rr 7 fl^r^lhThouse by brick wpp" 1 **- The * 



o be averv efficient one ; the fortace-ooo" uc„, 

 °«Ud. boriV.m«!ly. can be shut perfec ly close, and 



, i'ble ."get out of order, a. generally bappens *Uh 

 , re not ltaoie t" ge f , bol | er |jt a ,,i ia u l)W 



r e rinrhe h s U Tn ed dia^ e r; P thi 8 is intended to hold 

 tain,1 ?« ««Lr to keep up a moist atmosphere if 



leems to be a 

 made to 

 are not 



rLier be d Tntrodaced P inLe , but in tbU c- 

 ^ "no so situated, and was filled with sand which 

 an excellent non-conductor, P>Ml^*»jhMrt 



was 



Wng an wcou* apparatus has not been yet in 



from «c»j«n • ^ Rdmirably . aildf riUin i n g 



T' L the^Wy near the front wall, it occupies little 



along m ^J"*? nwt appearance. The curvilinear 

 room, and has a ne , This has bgen 



^AXcoMriT** -noke-fluc. into hot-water 

 tntte s r/nde ed weight by cement and covered with 

 ^ e The boiler (by Weeks, sen.) wbicn heats tins is 

 I kewiie intended to heat three ranges of pits, each 3d feet 

 bn7- two of them, for Melons, are already nearly 

 finished in one of which cement gutters covered wtth tiles 

 are ted' the other is furnished with cast-iron tanks ; these 

 are to be cased, both sides and top, with porous earthenware 

 material, made to fit, so as to give out moisture, and pre- 

 Z n the roots from coming in contact with the iron, winch 

 would born and destroy them. I he tanks are 8 ms. wide 

 and 5 deep i the flow and return being about 3 ft. apart. 

 These pits being upwards of 12ft distant from the boiler 

 the pipes between the latter and the troughs are bedded 

 in coal-asUes, about 7 or 8 inches below the surface of 

 the ground. By "«eans ot stoppers, each pit separately, 

 or all of them, including the Vinery, may be worked as 

 required. A more efficient means of ventilation has also 

 been afforded for the curvilinear Vinery ; this has been 

 effected without disturbing the iron-work or glass, by 

 enlarging the openings at top, so as to communicate with 

 a frame-work covered with zinc, and having vertical 

 ehutters in front, turning on piiot-ends so as to open or 

 shut easily up or down, by means of a cord fastened to the 

 upper side of the shutters. The border outside is covered 

 with Croggon's asphalte material, in order to keep the 

 rooti of the Vines from being chilled by the snows and 

 cold rains of spring. Having no unsightly appearance, this 

 material is well adapted for Amateurs who grow Vines in 

 greenhouses near or in connection with a sitting-room. 

 The house formerly employed as a Pine-stove has lately 

 undergone great alterations and improvement*, and is now 

 an excellent house for Orohidaeese and other stove-plants. 

 Both back and front walls have been raised five or six 

 courses of bricks higher, in order to admit of a passage 

 being made round the front of the bed. The house is 

 50 ft. long, and 18 ft. wide, with a bed in the centre for 

 the plants. Hot-water gutters, having a flow and return, 

 covered with tiles, run along the bottom of the bed, the 

 space above them being filled with brick-rubbish, over 

 which a layer of coal-ashes is afterwards placed, on which 

 the pots sit. These gutters keep up a steady heat in the 

 bed of 80°; they are supplied from an iron cistern, in 

 which the flow-pipe terminates at the further end of the 

 house from the boiler. Between the passage and front 

 wall is a slate shelf 2 t. wide, with an edge 1 J in. deep, for 

 placing plants on. About the middle of the house, 

 against the front wall, is placed a large slate cistern, 

 in which the rain water from the roof is collected. 

 In this, from the pipes passing below it, the water is kept 

 in good condition for watering the plants. Several 

 of these were in bloom. Begonia manica'a was here 

 producing a fine panicle of pretty delicate rose- 

 coloured flowers. A small plant of Dendrobium monili- 

 forme was also remarkable for its pretty purple and 

 white blossoms, which contrasted well with the showy 

 Gesnera zebrina that was standing near it. Near this 

 house is a range of pits, forming three sides of a square ; 

 these have been recently heated by hot-water gutters by 

 one of Garton and Jarvis's double drum boilers. This 

 boiler answers the purpose of heating very well; but the 

 tanks, being covered with tiles, emit too much moisture 

 during dull weather, in winter, for cuttings and flower- 

 garden plants, with which these pits are filled. The 

 plants in the Orchidaceous house are considerably im- 

 proved, and have a very healthv appearance ; a good 

 specimen of Dendrobium nobile, with several other plants, 

 *as coming into bloom. Many specimens are growing on 

 charred blocks, and show, from their fine heathy dark 

 green foliage, that they like their situation, the charcoal 

 ?? d °ubt having a beneficial effect npou them. Several 

 «eaths in the next house were growing in soil mixed 

 / * with superphosphate of lime ; this has not been 

 "g enough applied to thoroughly prove its effects; but 



well ' — a PP eured t( > be in perfect health and doing 

 l - This substance, unlike some of the other artificial 

 a nures > is perfectly harmless, and may be used with 

 TiH ama g e in the cultivation of most plants. In the cur- 

 u ear sto *ea large plant of Lsolia superbiens is throwing 

 b ; . a 8t f OD 5 flower-stem about 2J feet long, and will soon 



foli k* Here was also a l ,lant of Xylophytte lati- 



yelf' « l 6 feet hi S h ' completely covered with small pale 

 in iT 0wers *» this plant had been potted in June, chiefly 

 besid | c . oal mixea with peat, and a little loam, which, 

 Posaif 8 ' '° a beueficidl eff ect on its growth, has dis- 



£! a lt t0 bloom freelv. There was also in th;s house a 

 hei?h? eC ? en of Eu phorbia sp endens, fully 5 feet in 

 bios 4 in diameter > producing a multitude of showy 



^ * 0tns - lo front of this stove is a ran?e of pits that 

 j ;. alter ed some time ago and heated by Garton and 

 8 8 horizontal cylinders boiler, which, on account | 





of being set with too small a space for the smoke, 

 choices up with soot when coals are used either separately 

 or mixed with coke, and does not work well. In the large 

 conservatory, a fine bush of Teinpletonia glauca. covered 

 with bloom, is very conspicuous, and here i^uculia gratis- 

 sima. which is usually treated as a stove-plant, is verv 

 healthy, and flowering profusely in a temperature from 40° 

 to 50°. In the open grounds at this season there is little 

 novelty to notice, except some rock- work constructed with 

 rustic terraces in a corner of the arboretum, near the 

 large iron tent, which is to be planted with hardy Ferns, 

 for which the situation, bein< immediately behind a south 

 wall, and shaded in summer by tree*, is well adapted. 



The Naturalist's Corner. 



Remedy of the Citron against Poison. — Athenseus 

 relates a remarkable story of the use of Citrons against 

 poison, which he had from a friend of his, who was gover- 

 nor of Egypt. This governor had condemned two male- 

 factors to death by the bite of serpents. As they were led 

 to execution, a person taking compassion on them gave 

 them a Citron to eat. The consequence of this was, that 

 though they were exposed to the bite of the most venom- 

 ous serpents, they received no injury. The governor 

 being surprised at this extraordinary event, inquired of 

 the soldier who had guarded them, what they had ate or 

 drank that day ; and being informed that they ^had only 

 eaten a Citron, he ordered that the next day one of them 

 should eat a Citron and the other not. He who had not 

 tasted the Citron died presently after he was bitten ; the 



other remained unhurt. 



Ulva puluslris. —It is not certain, observes Pro- 

 fessor Martyn, what plant is the Ulva of the ancients. 

 He himself interprets it in Virgil's Georgics as Sedge, 

 which is a general name for large weeds that grow in 

 marshes and near the hanks of rivers. Most writers, 

 savs the Professor, suppose the Ulva to be much like the 

 Aha, or Sea-wrack, and that they differ chiefly in this: 

 that the Alga grows in salt water, and the Ulva in fresh. 

 But he goes on to mention one thing as certain— namely, 

 that there is no fresh-water plant which resembles the 

 Sea-wrack ; and agrees at the same time with what the 

 ancients have said of their Ulva. Osalpinus supposes, 

 and not without reason, that the Ulva is the same with 

 the Typha, which we call Cat's-tail, or Reed-mace, ltis 

 a very common weed in this country, and also in Italy, 

 among stagnant waters ; it grows to a considerable height, 

 and bears a head at the top of the stalk, which, when 

 ripe, affords a great deal of down. In the Third Georgic 

 it is called a marshy plant, and in the Eighth Eclogue it 

 is described as growing near a rivulet. In the Second 

 jEneid, Sinon mentions his lying hid amongst the Ulva, 

 in a muddy lake. The Cat's-tail grows only where there 

 is mud, and is tall enough to conceal any person. In the 

 Sixth jEneid, again, it is represented as growing by a 

 muddy river's side, and the colour is said to be glaucous, 

 or bluish-green, which agrees also with the Cat's-tail. 

 Ovid makes frequent mention of the Ulva as a marshy 

 plant. In the fourth book of his Metamorphoses, a pool 

 is described as being remarkably clear, by the negative 

 quality of not having any Ulva in it ; in the Sixth Book 

 it is called u delightful to the marshes." We find it men- 

 tioned also as a water-plant in the Eighth Book, in which 

 Ovid speaks also of a bed being made of the Ulva. This 

 agrees with what Matthiolus tells us, that the poorer 

 people in Italy make their beds of the down of the Cat's- 

 tail instead of feathers: and the same Author informs us 

 that there is hardly a standing water in Italy which does 

 not abound with Cat's-tail. 



Miscellaneous. 



Remarkable Snort of a Currant-tree — A Red Currant- 

 tree, which had been planted about 10 years, produced 

 this season, at. the top of one of the branches, 5 white 

 berries ; and lower, on the same branch, was one half red 

 and half white among others entirely red.— Revue Ilor- 



ticole.^ . f 



University of Erlanqen.—M the recent jubilee ot this 



University, Robert Brown was elected an Honorary 

 Doctor of Medicine ; and the Karon Delessert was made 

 a Doctor of Philosophy.— B <t. Zeit. 



Preservation of Plant Supports.— In 1840, at the sug- 

 gestion of the Professor of Chemistry at the Museum, I 

 had the points of a number of stakes of Fir wood done 

 over with Seyssel asphalte. These stakes were placed m 

 a soil constantly moist. At the present time v Sept., I844), 

 they are still as sound as they were at the first hour. 1 he 

 asphalte was laid on very hot with a brush, the wood 

 having been previously heated. It was laid on to the 

 thickness of l-12th of an inch, by repeated applications. 

 The last coat was smoothed over with a wooden spatula. 

 The bark should be taken off the lower end of the stakes ; 

 and the coating should extend three inches above the sur- 

 face of the soil.— M. Neumann, in Revue Horhcole for 



Sept.. 1843-H t „, , .. 



Effects of Frost on the Roots of the Elm.— According 

 to some experiments respecting the sensibility of the roots 

 of trees exnosed above ground to the frost during winter, 

 and replanted in spring, it was found that the El m was 

 most affected. This "fact has been again confirmed by 

 new observations made by M. Pepin, who states that 

 although the temperature was only— 5° centigrade, or J 

 Fah. below freezing the effect on these trees was very 

 evident. In the winter of 1842-3, he exposed «q»«»r »« 

 species of Elm ; when about to be planted he found their 

 roots all more or less injured by the frost : they were 

 black, and some were entering into a state of decomposi- 

 tion. The roots were carefully dressed in with the knife, 

 even to the quick, but, notwithstanding, three species died, 

 namely, U. campestris, oxoniensis, and rubra ; the other 



species are m a languishing condition, although the spring 

 was very favourable for transplanting trees. What is very 

 remarkable, the roots of the Jujube, Pistachia, Paliurus, 

 Adelia, Gleditschia, and other exotic trees, together with 

 gome from the south of France, have not been injured by 

 frost, although equally exposed with the Elms.— Revue 



Horticole for Sept., 1843. || 



The Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of 

 Ghent— has fixed its second quinquennial exhibition 

 for Sunday the 10th March next, at which gold and silver 

 medals will be awarded to the most successful competitors. 

 The highest prize is a medal worth 150 francs, or 6/. The 

 award of the Judges will be made on the Saturday. At 

 two o'clock on Sunday will be a banquet at which the 

 Judges, winners, and members of the Society, will partici- 

 pate. The exhibition « ill commence on Sunday at 1 1 a.m., 

 and close on Wednesday at 5 p.m. 



The Weather.— Notwithstanding the cold weather that 

 has now prevailed for some days, we have a specimen of 

 an Ash-tree, almost in leaf, from Gwrych Castle, the seat 

 of L. II. B. Ilesketh, Esq., near Abergele, on the coast of 



North Wales. . 



Adulteration of Tea. -On Monday, Mr. AVarnngton 

 read before the Chemical Society an interesting paper on 

 the Adulteration of Tea, which brought to light some very 

 startling facts. The Author having lately had occasion to 

 examine, some samples of Green Tea, discovered that it 

 had been coloured with Prussian blue. This led him to 

 examine a number of samples of genuine Chinese Green 

 Tea, the result of which showed that ihe Tea in China is 

 frequently thus adulterated : Tea of inferior quality and 

 bad colour being powdered over with Kaolin and Prussian 

 blue, so as to m«ke it resemble the finest Green Tea. 

 Mr. W. has likewise detected, by theaid of the microscope, 



a number of other leaves mixed with those of the lea 

 plant, in samples of Tea from China. 



A New Berry.— A few evenings since, at a small party 

 in Gardiners' Lane, where, of course, not one of the com- 

 pany had any knowledge of Horticulture, the mention of 

 the Service -"terry (or Soib) gave rise to a discussion as to 

 what sort of berry it was. One person thought lt was 

 either the hip or haw ; another that it was a species 

 of M Cranberry ;" a third that it grew on the Elder tree- 

 nobody appeared to have had any acquaintance with the 

 fru.t; till at last an old half-pay officer guessed— and was 

 held to have solved the riddle— that it was a sort of Berry 

 you got in the Service, commonly called a bulhst.— Hood $ 

 Magazine. 



CALENDAR. OF OPERATIONS 



For the enawne Week. 



I.— HOTHOUSES. CONSERVATORIES, &c. 

 A* the season advances, give more air to the houses, bee 

 that suitable composts arc ready under cover for pottin»-and 

 "owing seeds. Some of the hard-wooded plant, may now be 

 propagated by cutting., where a gentle bottom-heat can Je lwpt 

 up/ As charcoal is now allowed by all to ^ of use to plant, en- 

 deavour to get a supply of it at hand for mixing with the soil be- 

 fore the potting season arrives. Do not increase the te™p«atore 

 ye% and take care that all the plants are clean, and free from 



"conervHtorp.-Tbe early-forced bulbs will now be out of 

 bloom and should be removed to some sheltered place, m order 

 toXen their foliage, where frost is excluded, and other plants 

 may be introduced from the forcing-home*. Hlbm£a«o- 

 dendrons, Justicias, and other half-stove plants which flower m 

 the conservatory, may be pruned, and some of them placed m a 

 S»?£3^»« £*/ anouht not be potted anttl JJbey 

 begin to giow freely. A few Ner.ums and Hydrangeas may be 

 af-m forced into early growth for this house A gentle heat 

 would now benefit the Chinese Azaleas ■»^J£ , **£ -— 

 Gree*A««".-Contin..e to give as much air to tins house dailf 

 a, the state of the weather will admit of, and see that all the 

 plants are watered regularly; the great object is to keep the*e 



* F ^^s^^«> intxeduce fresh applies of plants 

 as u.e onner ones are removed to the conservatory : alsojther 

 ulaii s from which you wish to obtain an early crop of cutting*, 

 s fc las SaTviasple.dens, to come in early in the autumn. Com- 

 1 p'!ant* that do ..ot promise much Woojn „hoo d Je »toncj 

 discarded to make room for others; failures of tins nature 

 Hlwavs occur more or less in early forrmp.— D. "• 

 *"*y*™ _FLOWER-GA.U>EN AND SHKUliUERIES. 



Out-dour Department 

 After the late frost and snow the g.ound wiH not be in . • 

 wo kmg state for some days to come. The auctions o last 

 week may he attended to in the shrubberies, and m the flower- 

 garde Hose* may he pruned »»d deciduous climber* regulated 

 and tied or nailed pn.pe.ly. I *:n «* an advocate for clou 

 spurring, but prefer cutting out the old wood and replacing it by 



beading out is considerable, there will be plenty of emp .loyment 

 for a numls. The Whole of the autuniii-i.ropagated plants must 

 bee I tXff without delay, S o as to get them well rooted, and 

 urned out mto sand m temporary pits by the 1st of April ami so 

 a^ to set the pots at liberty for a second lot of plants, which should 

 Sw hecommg forward in the propagating frame. It is ot no use 

 replant Verbenas, fcc. for beds a foot or two apart, as the expe- 

 rience of the last three summers proves that unless we plant en 

 m'^e at once, the flower-garden will present only empty border. 

 unnl August or September; therefore, wnere we wanted one 

 plant in Ut years we shall in future require jfour or five ; , and 

 consequently a corresponding provision must be made. Hy<trau- 

 Peas introduced into the lorcing-house in January will now 

 reauire to have their side-shoots removed, to give strength to the 

 leader These shoots must be used for propagating, to provm* 

 plants' for another season. Sweet Peas, if wauled to bloom 

 earlv must be sown in pots in heat, for transplanting ; indeed a 

 general assortmentof the best annuals must now be sown rn pot* 

 Tor the BUriug and early summer decoration ot the flower-garden. 



- W. P. A. 



IIl.-FLORISTS' FLOWERS. . 



Should frnst and snow continue, it will leave the Florist mue 



to do out of doors. 



Tulips ought to be out of harm's way. - ^— 



Pink*, it defended in the manner recommended in a previous 

 Calendar, may bid defiance to hares and rabbits. 



Rnnunculus.heds will be all the better for frost and ™g'™ 

 final arrangement of the ro-ts for planting may no* be mane, 

 keeping all flat-crowned ones for the side-bed. r i«inr 



Aurictttas, though necessarily covered, as the «"«£™J££* 

 in the hearts, ought to have air whenever P^ticable with 

 drawing or tilting the frame-lights in the middle of the day, 



a current of air passing under them during the whole of the froat 



