Queries and Ans'wers. 375 



prefer the smoke-flue), and the steam is admitted into the house by means of 

 a stop-cock at pleasure, or to whatever extent is deemed desirable. There 

 is a damper in the flue, which in hot weather, when the moisture is particu- 

 larly desirable, turns off the fire and prevents it circulating through the flues, 

 and increasing the temperature of the house. At other times, the fuel 

 required to heat the house boils the water, the steam from which, if not 

 admitted into the house, escapes through the safety-valve. 



There is a shelf of Yorkshire flag in the front of the house, one foot wide, 

 supported on inch-round iron bars ; and under this shelf, near the front edge 

 of it, runs the steam-pipe, perforated at every foot with small holes, less 

 than ^ of an inch. The pipe is inch bore. I first used a lead pipe, but 

 soon found the expansion and contraction so great, that it got out of shape, 

 and occasioned so great a lodgment of condensed vapour in various places, as 

 to rather impede the entrance of the steam. I then substituted the gun-barrel 

 gas-pipes, and find they answer admirably. — John Lyons. Ladiston, Midlingar, 

 May 26. ]8i0. 



Tlie Construction of Mr, Peiin's Hot-houses. — From some expressions in 

 our account of Mr. Penn's mode of heating and ventilating (p. 120 — 128.), it 

 has been thought that it was not requisite to have either the sloping sashes of 

 the roof, or the upright sashes of the front, to open. A very little reflection, 

 however, will convince any one that Mr. Penn's mode of ventilating can only 

 be effective while artificial heat is being applied ; and, consequently, that in 

 houses heated by his mode, as well as in all other houses heated artificially, 

 provision must be made for ventilating during the hottest summer months, 

 when artificial heat is not wanted. From this, it will, we trust, be clearly 

 understood, that Mr. Penn's mode of warming and ventilating requires no 

 deviation whatever from the usual mode of constructing the roofs, fronts, and 

 ends of hot-houses. — Cond. 



The Elton and BlacJc Eagle Cherries, (p. 264.) — -The Elton is a very fine 

 cherry, and deserves a place in every gentleman's garden ; but as to the Black 

 Eagle, another of the cherries raised by the late Mr. Knight, it is not a merry 

 (merise), certainly, but it is, notwithstanding all that has been said to the 

 contrary in your Magazine (p. 264.), a small cherry : nor, though small, is it 

 good ; for a poorer, more vapid fruit was never produced. It is, however, 

 a free-growing tree and a tolerable bearer. I have both the Elton and Black 

 Eagle in my garden, near Liverpool, and the account I give of their qualities 

 is the result of experience. — T. R. Liverpool, May 28. 1840. 



When matters of this kind are related by a correspondent who does not give 

 his name publicly, he ought at least to give it to the conductor confidentially. 

 — - Cond. 



Art. VII. Queries and Answers. 



A CLOTHY Substance, white above and greenish beneath. — I take the liberty of 

 sending you a specimen of a curious natural production, which has been this 

 year found covering some meadows, near an estate of Lord Radnor's in Berk- 

 shire. It was found on the receding of the waters, after the long- continued 

 floods of last winter and spring, on some meadow land near Lechlade and 

 Fairford in Gloucestershire. The quantity covered in one large mass, without 

 any interruption, was as much as ten or twelve acres in one piece. No such 

 appearance has ever been seen or heard of before, though the same land has 

 been flooded almost every year. The substance was so adhesive that the 

 farmers tried ploughing and harrowing it but in vain ; the only way of getting 

 rid of it was by pulling it off like a plaster. As many as four or five meadows 

 have been covered with the enclosed clothy substance, and what is singular is, 

 that some of these meadows had not been under water any part of the winter. 

 A somewhat similar substance was said to have fallen in a field somewhere 

 in Prussia last year, and I saw a 'specimen of that. It was very like the 



