122 



OENKRAL TEVTKW OV TTIE ORCHIDE.^. 



tlie boiler into tlie house every evening diirinL!,' summer^ and l)y 

 syringing the i)lants in imitation of a gentle aliower " not driven 

 against them with an upsetting foi'ce." His chief novelty was the 

 use of slate baskets, the construction of which is shown in the 

 accompan3'ing woodcut copied from the ( Innlcncr^'' Chronicle. 



Contemporary with Beaton and ]n'0iuineiit among the cultivators of 

 orchids during the fifth decade of the century were Thomas Appleby, 

 gardener to Mr. Brocklehurst, of The Fence, near Macclesfield ; James 

 BreAvster, gardener to Mrs. Wray at Oakfield, Cheltenham ; and a little 

 later than these, George Gordon, Superintendent of the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden at Chisvvick; John Mylam, gardener to Mr. Sigismund 

 Rucker at West Hill, Wandsworth ; and the late Mr. 

 B. S. Williams, of Holloway, at that time gardener to 

 Mr. Charles B. AVarnei", of The Woodlands, Hoddesdon. 

 The results of their experience which they communi- 

 cated from time to time to the horticultural press 

 together with the fine specimens of cultural skill they 

 exhibited at the Horticultural Society's Shows at 

 Chiswick and other places had a marked influence 

 on the orchid culture of that and the following 

 decade (18-30 — 60), and did much to hasten the end 

 of the unhealthy regime that had so long held sway. 

 Long, however, before this period a revolution had 

 been slowly but surely effected, which had an enormous 

 influence on the cultivation of plants under glass, and 

 contributed in no small degree to the improvement in 

 orchid culture that subsequently followed. This was 

 the heating of glass-houses by means of hot-water 

 pipes, which were first used for this purpose on a 

 small scale by Mr. Anthony Bacon, of Aberaman in 

 Glamorganshire, and afterwards by the same gentleman 

 at Elcot, near New^bury. The inventor of the process is said to have 

 been a Mr. Atkinson. The change from the system of heating by 

 means of the brick flue with the tan bed to that of heating by 

 hot water was nothing less than the substitution of an almost 

 perfect control over the heating power with a great diminution of 

 the labour of attending to the fires, for a very imperfect control 

 with unremitting attention day and night; and added to this was 



Orchid basket of 



slate ii.seil by Mr. 



J. C. Lyons. 



