July 5, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



11 



waste-pipe which you tale right up through the roof of the 

 house. We have had similar trouble in small houses and 

 pits, from the expansion of the water when heated to or near 

 the boiling point. If you have no more heat than you want, 

 with the pipes thus hot, you had better add more piping, 

 and not have them so hot, as the heat given off from the 

 pipes at from 200° to 212° is very trying for tender plants. 

 It would be safer not to have the water above 170°, or 

 lower than that. Then the water would expand less. If, 

 with water at 170°, or lower, you will have enough of heat, 

 then the next point will be to moderate the strength of your 

 fire, either by using inferior fuel or banking-up with ashes, 

 and keeping the ashpit-door close whenever you have 

 obtained as much heat as you want. By this means a 

 gentle uniform heat may be kept up under any boiler, 

 as the draught, if not regulated by the ashpit-door, can 

 also be regulated by a damper. If from neglect or other- 

 causes there would be a doubt of this answering, the great 

 means of safety would be your proposed expansion-cistern. 

 It matters not how this is fixed, whether by the side or 

 on the top of the open end of the pipe, provided the cistern 

 communicates with the pipe and stands mostly above it. 

 When the fire is lighted the water in the cistern should 

 not stand much above the orifice of the open pipe. This 

 will afford all that more room for expansion of the water ; 

 and if the cistern is covered, to prevent the escape of vapour 

 as the water cools, there will be plenty of water to fill the 

 pipes and boiler, with, now and then, a little addition being 

 made to it. 



Now, but for your safety-pipe through the roof, there 

 would be danger of an explosion. With that safety-pipe, 

 and the large discharge you speak of, there is danger of air 

 getting into the pipes, especially the lower ones for bottom 

 heat ; and then, not to speak of danger, it ought to be 

 generally known that a body of air enclosed between two 

 columns of water gets, for all circulation purposes, as impas- 

 sable as a barrier of solid rock. We perceive you have a 

 tap or turncock at the farther end of the pipes for bottom 

 heat, and, we presume, at the highest point of the pipes. 

 The turning of this will let off any accumulated air : but 

 why not have an open gas-pipe going outside the house 

 instead, which would be continuously self-acting, and save 

 you all the trouble of turning the tap ? If a little hot water 

 was your object, you could obtain that from your cistern ; 

 but for all delicate purposes it is best to use pure soft water, 

 warmed in the house by being set over the cistern. 



As to the material for the cistern, either zinc or sheet 

 iron will answer well enough, but they will soon oxidise. If 

 either is dipped twice in a galvauising trough they will last 

 much longer. We would as soon have a wood box, say of 

 1-4-inch boards, well beaten and joined at the corners. This 

 kept constantly supplied with water will last a long time. 

 Even if lined with zinc or thin lead both will last much 

 longer from the support of the wood. As already stated, the 

 large cistern will be the best safety valve. 



Secondly. As the junction-pipes to the second house, 

 even when under the gravel path, will not be so low as the 

 pipes in the first house when they issue from the boiler, the 

 simplest mode of heating the second house, which only needs 

 heat occasionally, would be to take a flow-pipe from the 

 proposed cistern, which you could plug up, when not wanted, 

 with a wooden plug. But the return-pipe must not return to 

 the cistern, but form one of the other returns, or communi- 

 cate at once from house No. 2 to the bottom of the boiler. 

 We state this because it is best that the return-pipe from 

 No. 2 should not rise, but rather decline from thence to the 

 boiler. You might have taken only one flow-pipe from the 

 boiler to the cistern, and from thence taken pipes for bottom 

 heat, or top heat, wherever you liked, provided the pipes in 

 no place were lower than the boiler, and the return-pipes, if 

 anything, fell to the bottom of the boiler. The one-inch 

 connecting-pipe you propose must be bedded in sawdust, or 

 some non-conducting material, or it will lose much heat in the 

 course of 9 feet. We would prefer at least a two-inch pipe.l 



PLANTS FOB, SMOKY LOCALITIES. 

 The reply which you have given to "L. H. S." shows you 

 to be well acquainted with all the trees and shrubs which 

 can grow in the vicinity of smoky large towns. 



I live a mile distant from the centre of Manchester, on the 

 east side. My garden is protected either with trees or 

 buildings, except from the north. Limes and Elms appear 

 to grow well for two or three years, and then either break 

 off midway down the trunks, or, as if by magic, die in a 

 moment. Poplars are thin, ragged, and unsightly, and are 

 certain to die off. The Copper-leaved Beech holds its place, 

 certainly, but with great struggling. The Mountain Ash 

 does tolerably. The Horse Chestnut grows freely, but never 

 blooms. The north and north-west winds affect the young 

 leaves severely, making a wreck where abundant foliage 

 existed. Pear trees grow well, but bloom only occasionally. 

 This year three Pear trees, each of them at least 45 feet in 

 height, have been profusely covered with leaves ; one only 

 bloomed, the other two disdained the trouble. Thorns grow 

 well, and flower freely, both white and red. Lilacs, Gueldres 

 Rose, Siberian Crab, and the Elder do well, more especially 

 the latter, which seems as if it took a pride in combating 

 the enemy, smoke, and routing it altogether. 



Azaleas grow well, the yellow one more freely than any 

 other sort. The Azalea thrives best when it is protected 

 from the keen blast or the blazing midday sun. But of all 

 the evergreens which thrive here let me sing the praises of 

 the Rhododendron. Some of the less hardy varieties have 

 great difficulty in maintaining their footing, and indeed, like 

 consumptive people, die off. Our garden would be nothing 

 without the Rhododendrons, they are charming and beautiful 

 whether in flower or not; waving their heads with every 

 breeze of wind, they become the most polite and courteou s 

 of evergreens. Aucubas do very well indeed, they grow up 

 into strong bushy trees, suffering from nothing but unkind 

 Jack Frost. White and yellow Brooms, as you say, do fairly, 

 but that is all that can be said of them. Toung Hollies 

 appear to be doing well, but their seniors keep on disappear- 

 ing. Laurustinus will not do ; whilst the Ledum latifolium 

 make their balls of snow every season. The Ribes thrives 

 very well. Weigela rosea will not bloom, coax it ever so 

 much. Privet is successful, and makes wood freely. Labur- 

 nums are very satisfactory for a town buried in smoke, 

 but when compared with those grown in more favoured 

 situations they are scarcely worth naming. 



I have thus gone through almost all the kinds I am able 

 to grow, which agrees with nearly all you have written. 

 There is, however, one remark I am desirous of making to 

 all who desire to have trees and shrubs in the neighbour- 

 hood of large towns, and it is this — that if they want to 

 be successful they must look carefully after them, and never 

 cease their efforts in protecting them from the enemies 

 which they have to fight against. — H. A. 



NEW STEAWBEEEIES. 

 The Royal Hautbois. — Through the kindness of the Rev. 

 W. F. Radclyffe, of Rushton, we have received a basket of the 

 fruit of Rivers' Royal Hautbois, which, notwithstanding the 

 distance travelled, came in excellent condition. This is by 

 far the best variety of the Hautbois we have ever seen. It 

 is the largest in size and the most abundant bearer, and the 

 flavour is superior to any other of the Hautbois. The colour, 

 like that of all the other varieties, is partly purplish rose 

 and partly pale yellowish ; and the flavour, as a friend 

 remarked, was " like Strawberries and cream." 



Mr. De Jonghe, of Brussels, has sent us specimens of two 

 new Strawberries which we think will prove useful additions 

 to those already in cultivation, if it were for no other pro- 

 perty than that of bearing a long journey without injury. 

 In both of these the flesh is so firm and solid that the ^con- 

 dition in which we received them was most excellent, ^and 

 the flavour was not in the least destroyed. 



Bijou. — This is evidently of the same race as that other 

 excellent variety raised by Mr. De Jonghe called La Con- 

 stante. The stalks of the leaves and fruit are short and 

 stout, clothed with spreading hairs. The blade of the leaves 

 is of a glaucous green beneath, and a clear shining dark 

 green above. Flowers small. 



Fruit not so large as that of La Constante, from which it 

 was raised, ovate or conical, regularly formed, and having 

 large seeds, which are level with or rather prominent on the 



