330 



JOURNAL OB" HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ May 5, 1863. 



Penzance. Onions are in a very flourishing condition. Peas 

 are in blossom ; indeed, market-gardeners generally say that if 

 the weather continue fine, there will he as good a season as 

 there has been for many years past. — W. P. Jtrsr. 



BAKBADOES POTATO. 



Theee is a kind of Potato in this part of the country which 

 may, perhaps, he the Barbadoes Potato, which your corre- 

 spondent " Constant Readeb " inquires about. It was brought 

 over from California this time last year by a neighbouring 

 farmer, and gave a large return. 



The tubers are of two kinds, one red the other white. The 

 largest specimens I saw were about 8 inches long and about 

 2 broad. The shape round, not flat. The skin is smooth, but 

 the whole tuber is covered over with knobs. It very much 

 resembles a kind of Potato I have seen in the south of Prance, 

 but vastly exceeds this latter in size. The man who brought it 

 over deBired me to plant the sets 2 feet apart, said that it grew 

 very tall and branching, and had very striking blossoms of four 

 different colours ; he also represented it as exceedingly prolific. 

 It does not seem to be a very early kind, as all our early kinds 

 are far ahead of it. — Q. Q. 



A GOOD BOILEB,. 



As I observe that one of our recognised authorities on garden- 

 ing matters, Mr. Robson, requests the particulars of a good 

 boiler, it will enable all of us who may be interested in such details 

 (and, perhaps, we are each individually too prone to imagine that 

 whatever succeeds best under our own supervision must be the 

 best of its kind) to arrive at some practical opinion on the point, 

 if Mr. Robson will kindly favour Us with his judgment after 

 considering the different plans that may be described. I have 

 made use of most of the different methods of heating, and with- 

 out saying that my present arrangement is the best, I will de- 

 scribe it and its work, and leave it to Mr. Robson to decide. 



The boiler is an upright one by Truss, 2 feet 6 inches high 

 and 1 foot 8 inches in diameter, placed at the end of a lean-to con- 

 servatory-house, 27 feet by 10, 11 feet high ; 6 feet of the 

 back is wall, the upper 5 feet thin boards with ventilating win- 

 dows. The main flow and return pipes pass through this house, 

 heating it more than is required, on their way to the upper- 

 terrace house (Bpan, glass all round), which is 12 feet above the 

 level of the boiler. This house is 30 feet long, 10 feet wide, 

 and about 8J feet high, divided into three — a coach-house, a 

 greenhouse, and stove. 



In the Btove the pipe heats a propagating-tank of 7 feet long, 

 and on its return makes a circuit in the Cactus end before join- 

 ing the main flow. The water then descends to the lower level, 

 and before returning to the boiler heats a large open-air tank 

 covered with slates, 8 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide, and 

 about 2 feet deep, which can be used for propagating or growing 

 Camellias under tall hand-glasses. 



The fire, if attended to properly at half-past ten at night, iB 

 still alight at six A.M., and the water in pipes and tanks quite 

 hot. All last summer we only used the cinders and breeze of 

 the house ; but in the winter months I have used coke as well — 

 about li chaldron per month. In the lower house the venti- 

 lators have been necessarily kept open almost always day and 

 night during the past mild season, or the temperature would 

 have been too high. 



The boiler is not a patent, though the pipes are those of 

 Truss & Co., of Graeechurch Street, advertised in your columns ; 

 hut it is an honest and deserving patent, enabling any gardener 

 or amateur to take out and replace any length of pipe that may 

 be defective, and with the advantage that the whole apparatus 

 may be removed at a moment's notice. 



Should Mr. Robson come into my neighbourhood it would 

 afford me much pleasure to show him the whole of my limited 

 arrangements, and to thank him personally for the many hours' 

 gratification and knowledge that I have gained by perusing his 

 articles. 



Before sending this offl inquired of my gardener, who, although 

 not a scientific man, has had many years' experience, and he says 

 that our present mode of heating consumes less fuel, and gives 

 less trouble than any of the various modes that he has had under 

 his care ; and that if carefully fired and made up at night it will 



be alight after eleven or eleven and a half hours. — C. M. MAJOB, 

 Cromwell Souse, Dtippas Sill Terrace, Croydon. 



[We have read over the statement. There is little doubt of 

 the heating in the circumstances ; but the conditions required 

 by Mr. Robson are not given — expense of heating, material, and 

 consumption of fuel for the space to be heated. The only singular 

 thing, and a most capital idea it is, is bringing the return-pipe 

 through a cistern of water out of doors, so as easily to get heated 

 pure water. — Eds. J. oe PL] 



CHEAP FLUES. 



At page 211 of The Jouenai oe HoETlOtrLTUBE your cor- 

 respondent " E." represents that he heated two houses, each 

 20 feet long and 15 feet wide, by means of a smoke flue at a cost 

 of 50s. A gentleman who saw this statement, and who is erect- 

 ing a vinery 90 feet long, came to consult me as. to the practica- 

 bility of his heating it at the same rate of cost. I at once told 

 him that I had no idea how it could be done ; that all flues I 

 had ever seeu had a furnace front and cast-iron bars, and gene- 

 rally a damper, and that flues required foundations — arches, in 

 fact, if in a vinery, for the arrangements for the roots of the 

 Vines to be what they ought to be — and that 50s. would go a very 

 short way in providing the above. That portion of the article 

 appeared very much like an advertisement to the effect " there 

 is nothing like bricks," " E." being a vendor of that very useful 

 commodity. 



The matter has, however, now assumed a different aspect when 

 your highly intelligent correspondent, Mr. J. Robson, accepts 

 and puts forth " E.'s " statement with his signature across it ; 

 and to prevent misunderstandings with those who have such 

 works in progress I consider that either "E." or Mr. J. Robson 

 should give the full particulars, with the cost of the various 

 items ; for I am convinced something has been forgotten in the 

 estimate. 



Eor Mr. J. Robson's information let me say that I took an, 

 estimate from a bricklayer for a flue to heat a vinery 110 feet 

 long. The flue was to be along the whole length, and both ends 

 of the house and on arches, so that the Vine roots could run 

 under it. The cost of the place was to be £19 10s., and for that 

 sum I erected a hot-water apparatus, boiler, and everything 

 complete. There are only two rows of pipes along the front and 

 one end. The house is a late vinery, and that extent of pipe is 

 found ample. The apparatus has been up six years, and has not 

 cost sixpence since its erection ; whereas the least that could be 

 allowed for cleaning-out the flue would be 5s. annually. — Wm. 

 Thomson. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETING. 



The April Meeting of the Entomological Society was held on 

 the 5th inst., the President, P. Smith, Esq., being in the chair. 

 Valuable donations to the library received from the Royal and 

 Linnsean Societies, the Society of Arts, the ^rp^Agricultural 

 Society, Dr. Schaum, and Messrs. Saunders, Hewitson, &c, were 

 announced j and Professor Lacordaire, of Liege ; Dr. Hagen, 

 of Konigsberg ; and Dr. Leconte, of New York, were elected 

 honorary members of the Society. 



General Sir J. B. Hearsey exhibited a box of handsom.3 Lepi- 

 dopterous insects belonging to the family Noctuidse, from India, 

 including several new species. 



Mr. G. R. WaterhouBe exhibited a new British species of 

 Staphylinidse, Aleochara inconspicua, remarkable for the great 

 length of the terminal joints of the antenna?. 



The President made some observations on the economy of the 

 curious parasitic Beetle, Claviger testaceus, which he had found 

 in Ants' nests in some numbers near Croydon, and which he had 

 kept alive by offering them sugar dissolved in water upon blotting 

 paper, which they had readily sucked. Specimens had also been 

 found in the nest of the common garden Ant at Eolkestone. It 

 was generally in Ants' nests concealed beneath flat stones that 

 these little Beetles were to be found. 



Mr. J. Lubbock made some inquiries relative to the two 

 species of Moths, Acronycta Psi and tridens, which although so 

 similar in the perfect state as to be scarcely distinguishable, are 

 produced from larvffi very different from each other. 



Mr. Lowndes read some notes on the habits of different species 

 of Ants collected by him in Australia. One species he had 

 observed ranged over an area of at least a thousand miles with- 





