68 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 27, 1863; 



Diophcmtus (Turner), a large showy flower, bright red with 

 maroon spots, but apt to run we think. 



Leo (Hoyle), bright orange rose. A dark and showy-looking 

 variety. 



Mira (Beck), rose with white edges, black spots on the fire 

 A very free and pretty variety. 



FANCY PELARGONIUMS. 



Emperor of Morocco (Turner), rich mulberry, lilac throat and 

 edges ; fine form and substance. A very dark and striking 

 variety. 



First Favourite (Turner), deep rich maroon, with white throat 

 and margin. Very pretty and somewhat new in colour. 



Undine (Turner), a large rosy lake, with light throat and 

 edges. Very fine show flower. 



These are, I think, amongst the best of last year's flowers ; and 

 now, as I look at the weeding process that has taken place in 

 my little tumble-down greenhouse, and see how few of the large 

 batch of last year I have kept, and watoh with some degree of 

 interest my thirty or forty new varieties which, through the 

 kindness of Mr. Turner and Messrs. Dobson, I see now pushing 

 their way on my shelves, I wonder what their fate will be — 

 whether the observations of cynical critics on the new ones were 

 true, that they were so dressed and bandied, that it would be 

 no more possible to recognise them when under different hands 

 than it would be to recognise the old dowager when, her false 

 hair, and teeth, and rouge laid aside, she appears rather fitted 

 for being a member of that " ugly olub," immortalised by the 

 "Spectator." I do not believe in such saur kraut remarks, and 

 look forward with much pleasure to seeing each beauteous novelty 

 expanding its charms before my eyes. Still, if it be so, it shall 

 "be duly chronicled, my simple object being to give reliable in- 

 formation, so far as my own judgment goes, on all these various 

 matters ; and I am sure the cause of floriculture, as, indeed, every 

 other cause, from the very highest of all, that of the truth itself, 

 is better advanced by fair and honest statements than by any 

 flattering or one-sided views. — D., Deal. 



VENTILATION OF HOETICDLTUEAL 

 STRUCTURES. 



Amongst the many topics to which public attention has 

 been directed of late years that of ventilation has attracted its 

 full share, and treatise after treatise has been written on the 

 subject. Sometimes new and startling theories are advanced but 

 to be refuted, and other theories in turn put forth until, I fear, it 

 may be said that the laws which govern the circulation of air 

 are but imperfectly known. However, the spirit of inquiring 

 abroad has elicited much useful information, and although we 

 are far from being perfect in the practice, an advance has been 

 made, and inquiry being again afloat it is likely not to rest until 

 some useful results are secured. 



Taken in a comprehensive sense the term " ventilation," or 

 the due admission and distribution of wholesome air, is more 

 important than may at first be supposed. It is also a subject of 

 much greater difficulty than many imagine. Look, for instance, 

 at our coal mines, and see the lamentable accidents that take 

 place from time to time, and this, too, in spite of all the precau- 

 tions that skill and science could adopt to avert such a calamity. 

 But ventilation below ground is not the subject for our con- 

 sideration, our province is fortunately on the surface ; but even 

 as regards this much diversity of opinion exists, and now and 

 then extreme views are put forth. 



Some years ago a great authority in such matters, to whom 

 the ventilation of the Houses of Parliament was entrusted, 

 startled the world by propounding s new law on the subject of 

 currents of air, and some of the law courts in other parts of the 

 kingdom then building were submitted to his mode of treating 

 them. One of the peculiarities of this I remember, in one place 

 at least, was that the windows were closely fastened down, and 

 on the Judge complaining of the heat in court on a warm sum- 

 mer's day, he was told the windows were purposely so fastened 

 by the designer of this mode of ventilation, on which his lordship 

 very properly exercised his own judgment in the matter by 

 directing his attendants with their long wands to break the glass. 

 This was done alike to the comfort and amusement of the court; 

 and the plan of the popular champion of ventilation of some 

 twenty or more years ago fell to the ground, and has been since 

 generally condemned, and the old and certainly far-from-improper 



notion that vitiated air finds its way to the top, and that it 

 ought at once to escape there, has been revived. 



Various and manifold have been the means adopted to attain 

 that end ; not the least useful are those simple contrivances we 

 so often see in the smoking-rooms of taverns and other places, 

 which very often assume an ornamental shape, and sometimes 

 also are turned to account in another way. By far the prettiest 

 feature of this kind I ever saw was in the coffee-room of an inn 

 at Truro. The ceiling of the long room was crossed in the 

 centre by a highly ornamental open-work east-iron girder form- 

 ing an elliptic arch, and in substance about a foot thick. I 

 believe, but am not certain, that this girder carried a wall and 

 stack of chimnies above ; but suffice it here to say that its ap- 

 pearance was good, adding importance to rather than detracting 

 from the noble room it was placed in, and I believe it answered ad- 

 mirably. Doubtless its ends communicated with the outward air. 



Taking glass structures as a whole, it is easy to conceive that 

 in the generality of these a certain influx and efflux of air must 

 at all times be going on ; and in some old-fashioned houses, 

 where the squares of glass are Small and the interstices open, 

 the quantities of air admitted by such means must be very 

 great, while, it is needless to say, as much internal air must be 

 ejected. This influx and efflux will be the greater in proportion 

 to the difference in the temperatures in the internal and external 

 air ; and assuming for argument that the occupants of the house 

 require a night temperature of 60°, it follows that a larger pro- 

 portion of outward air is sucked into this house on a cold 

 frosty night than on a mild dull day. This, of course, is at the 

 expense of the mode of heating adopted : hence the more-recently- 

 built houses are a nearer approach to being air-tight, the over- 

 laps being fewer and much closer, and the framework made 

 to fit as well as it can be made. But serious as is the loss 

 of heat in one of the old-fashioned houses spoken of, if the 

 necessary warmth required by the plants inside can be main- 

 tained, there are many plants which do better in such a position 

 than when in a more fashionable and more air-tight dwelling : 

 hence we often hear of gardeners lamenting how well certain 

 plants did in the rioketty old house compared with what they 

 do in the new one — and this is no illusion ; for such plants as 

 require a continuous refreshing of pure air, its circulation cannot 

 be too great when accompanied with the genial warmth they 

 also stand in need of. AU plants cultivated in our hothouses 

 are nevertheless not alike in this, some requiring the close con- 

 fined atmosphere of the stove, while others delight in the more 

 open breeze. 



It would be tedious in an article of this kind to go into the 

 history of each plant. Let us, therefore, just take a rough 

 survey of the contents of an ordinary plant-stove — such, for 

 instance, as we often meet with in gardens that may have two or 

 three houses devoted to the culture of plants. In such a house it 

 is not unusualto find someEerns, Orchids, hard and soft wooded 

 plants, with bulbs and creepers, and probably some succulent 

 plants as well. Now, though the amount of heat which each 

 of these plants requires differs but little in any case, that is 

 perhaps the only condition they agree in. The other features 

 of air and moisture differ widely. Take, for instance, a pactus 

 basking in the full blaze of a tropical sun, and compare- this 

 with a Begonia, a Cissus, or a Maranta occupying the plains 

 and densely shaded by the trees of the tropical forest ; while 

 midway between these last-named plants and the open air, as 

 the space above the trees may be called, are nestled in the 

 claws and forks of these monarohs of the foreBt some of the 

 moBt lovely of our Orchids, existing as they do in a great 

 measure on the humidity of the atmosphere which surrounds 

 them at a certain season when they make their allotted growth 

 and progress, while at another period the dryness of the air 

 permits them to take their allotted rest so necessary to enable 

 them to commence their duties again with vigour at the proper 

 time. Compare these widely-conflicting conditions of the plants 

 we endeavour to cultivate, and the wonder will cease that some 

 of them do not answer bo well as could be wished. A steady 

 uniform warmth is associated with an idea of comfort ; but it is 

 at variance with all Nature's works, and as such ought to be 

 received with caution. But periods of steady treatment are as 

 neeeesary here as elsewhere, selecting the proper time from the 

 known history of the plant to give this. That much is done 

 in this way cannot be denied ; but the mixture of subjects in an 

 ordinary plant-house prevents the treatment' being oarried out to 

 the full extent necessary to the individual welfare of each plant 

 contained therein. 



