July 4, 1872. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



17 



duoe it iu ten or fourteen days in the earlier stages of the 

 Vine's growth, and more especially during a sunless and wet 

 season like the present. The agency we would apply is neither 

 more nor less than a warm atmosphere highly charged with 

 vapour or moisture, in conjunction with a minimum of venti- 

 lation. This produces it to a certainty ; and in vineries where 

 the ventilation is ample and the atmosphere not over-moist, it 

 will not appear, although in such a season as this is it requires 

 careful management in the points named to prevent its appear- 

 ance. Ventilation and dryness will not eradicate the disorder 

 once the leaves get into the spongy blistered state ; hut these 

 conditions will arrest its spread when it has commenced, and 

 prevent it where it has not. Our theory of the matter is, that 

 with a close over-damp atmosphere and a high stimulating 

 temperature surrounding the foliage in the absence of sun- 

 shine, and while the roots are active in a moist border, too 

 much sap is sent up, which, in the absence of a corresponding 

 amount of evaporation and other functional operations of the 

 leaf, ruptures the sap-channels or veins of the leaf, and as a 

 consequence the crude warty matter is formed in the leaf. 

 This takes place more iu the centre of the leaf, and its ex- 

 pansion — except towards the margin — becomes arrested, and 

 it assumes a cup form. In one instance this year we have 

 seen several leaves from the back of which an attempt was 

 made to form small leaflets just where the excrescence was the 

 thickest. 



Our present closely-glazed hothouses are more favourable to 

 the production of this disorder than were the older ones, with 

 their many open laps and chinks for the escape of moisture 

 and the ingress of fresh air, and require more than ordinary 

 care in keeping up a constant circulation of fresh dry air to 

 guard against the evil in question, as well as to produce a 

 healthy foliage of that consistency and texture which is indi- 

 cative of functional regularity. Whenever the first signs • of 

 these warts appear, let it be the signal for increased ventila- 

 tion and decreased atmospheric moisture. — (The Gardener.) 



ONE HOUSE "FOR FRUIT AND PLANTS. 



We would direct the attention of " S. E." (a correspondent) 

 to the article at page 463, as there he will find much that will 

 meet his case. To be more precise : " S. K." may combine 

 plants and flowers in such a house, but to do much with plants 

 these should not be too much shaded. Six Vines will be ample, 

 and five would be better. One could not in such a house have 

 a better variety than Black Hamburgh for the main bulk, with 

 one Buckland Sweetwater Vine and one Boyal Muscadine. Of 

 course by giving more heat any kind could be grown. These 

 will ripen well without much artificial heat. 



If plants are grown in the house we have not much faith in 

 the Strawberries doing well on the back border. They would 

 thrive better on the front shelf. If fruit were a consideration 

 there might be Peaches on the back wall ; if flowers were the 

 object it might be clothed witli Camellias and Oranges, and 

 the shade of the Vines and the additional heat in summer 

 would be conducive to their success. After .the Vine leaves 

 were ripe there would be a rich back wall to look at. If small 

 plants were the object, or even if the greatest possible quantity 

 of Strawberries, we would make a steep stage against the wall. 

 The service of that stage would, however, be reduced to a 

 minimum when the Vines began to shade the house. One 

 cannot, in a small house, have every advantage. As a general 

 rule, with the exception of Mosses, Ferns, etc., plants will not 

 long thrive without a fair portion of light. By moving plants 

 out much may, however, be done in a small house. In such a 

 case, if we were to combine Vines and flowers, we should plant 

 Vines as proposed, clothe the back wall with large Camellias 

 planted out, and then have such subjects as Epacrises, Azaleas, 

 Cytisus, Primulas, and Cinerarias. 



For treatment we recommend the " Vine Manual," which 

 can be had by post from our office for 2s. 7Jrf. 



As respects heating, we have little faith in any of the modes 

 proposed. First, there is a stove which it is proposed to fix 

 in the house, to be fed from an outhouse, but the heat to 

 descend and to pass under the pathway in a flue for the length 

 of the house, and then to rise and go into a kitchen chimney. 

 We should not envy anyone if shut up in the outhouse and 

 vainly striving to make the flue draw. The whole thing is 

 considered by the most practical as contrary to natural laws. 

 Besides, anyone who has read carefully our pages would have 

 perceived that one secret of good draught in such stoves is, 

 that the horizontal pipe from the stove must be short, not 



more than from 2 to 3 feet. Of course, if the rise of the pipe 

 or flue is rapid the length does not so much signify. In this 

 case " S. K." attempts to bring the heated air down under 

 the pathway. 



There is just one favourable condition — that is, the height of 

 the kitchen chimney, and the higher the better. A second 

 thing would be, not merely sinking the stove as much as prac- 

 ticable, but having a close chamber over it, in which the heat 

 should rise before descending to the lowered flue. When that 

 flue became a little heated, the tall chimney would act in 

 securing draught and combustion. In a parlour of a public- 

 house in a neighbouring market town, we saw an open iron 

 stove that is with the firebox exposed, as in a common grate, 

 only the stove stood in the middle of the room without any 

 apparent chimney. The smoke rose into what seemed the top 

 of the stove, and an opening there brought the smoke down 

 by the back of the stove into a flue underneath the floor of the 

 room, the floor of some passages, and beneath the floor of a 

 large kitchen, from whence it rose and passed into the kitchen 

 chimnej'. The high warm chimney was the chief cause of 

 draught. Under similar conditions we should not despair of 

 success ; but without the high heated chimney, and without 

 taking means that the heated ah' should rise first, wo have no 

 faith in the proposed plan acting. 



The second proposed plan is just as objectionable. The flue 

 taken from the kitchen fireplace going along the house and 

 returning, supplied with dampers, &c., would answer, but for 

 the simple fact of the flue, after entering the greenhouse, 

 having to descend. 



For such a small house, 21 feet by 10, and where it was 

 merely wished to keep out frost, the simplest plan would be 

 to place the stove as proposed. If a brick one, it will be better 

 than iron, so that it can be fed from the outhouse, and just 

 take a pipe for smoke from the stove right through the roof of 

 the house. With close-fitting furnace and ashpit-doors you 

 can regulate draught to a nicety. Thus no flue will be needed. 



If the stove were placed as e f, near the kitchen chimney, 

 the smoke-pipe could be at once taken into the chimney. 

 There is just this thing necessary, the pipe should go in from 

 5 to 10 feet above the fireplace in the kitchen so as to avoid 

 back draught. 



The next simplest and a better mode would be to sink a small 

 stokehole, have there a furnace and a flue from it underneath 

 the floor, the flue terminating at the stated height in the 

 chimney. We would rather like " S. K." to try his own plans 

 and report the result, and to do that whatever plan he may 

 adopt.— E. F. 



BALCONY GARDENING. 



No more decisive evidence occurs to us of the increased and 

 increasing love for gardening than the multitude of inquiries 

 for plants suitable for cultivation in a balcony. We have our 

 own chosen ones, and we have our own preferred arrangement, 

 but we ask from our readers the communication of the results 

 of their own experience as to which plants should be selected, 

 how they should be cultivated, and how arranged. There is 

 only one circumstance from which we think no variation is 

 permissible — the plants must be either grown in boxes, or in 

 pots plunged in boxes. 



Within a very few years the plants cultivatable in a balcony 

 have increased a thousandfold, yet we have had no special 

 notes upon them or their management there. We copy from 

 an American contemporary the drawing of a balcony garden. 

 It is highly tasteful, and shows the adoption of Palms and 

 trailers to mingle with the Pelargoniums', Fuchsias, Calceo- 

 larias, and others of our old favourites that tell of a master- 

 ship. 



We reprint what Mr. Fish wrote long ago relative to some 

 older plants in the balcony, and we shall be glad to increase 

 the value by notes from our readers relative to other plants 

 whether new or old. 



The boxes contain a mixture, or are filled with one thing 

 separately. Filled either way, there would be little difficulty 

 as to their summer treatment ; but the winter treatment would 

 be very different if the proprietor chose to keep the plants for 

 another season. Even in summer the treatment should be 

 different. Coolness and moisture for Calceolarias ; heat and 

 not too much moisture for Scarlet Geraniums. When TropEeo- 

 lums are established they need little moisture to cause them to 

 bloom freely. If the proprietor chooses to purchase a fresh 

 lot for a summer display, the best thing he can do is to let 



