i8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 359. 



We always count on a fine lot of wreaths of scarlet bracts at 

 this period when choice llowers are scarce. Pot-culture is not 

 good treatment for this plant usually ; it is far better to plant it 

 out in a house similar to that in wliich Roses are grown, it will 

 stand all the sun in summer, and make fine growth that may 

 be trained up under the rafters, or at the ends of the house 

 where it will not interfere with the other occupants. 



Bougainvillea glabra is now in full bloom, giving us our 

 winter crop oi Howers that are really more useful than those 

 that come in summer, and better colored, too, for in summer 

 the house has to be shaded, and this lessens the intensity of 

 the color of the bright pink bracts. To get the Bougainvillea 

 in bloom at this season it is necessary to plant it out in a warm 

 house that is kept at a minimum of sixty-five degrees at night 

 in winter, and wlien this crop of bloom is cut off, the plant is 

 cut back and allowed to grow again. After flowering it is once 

 more cut back in late August, so that we get two crops of How- 

 ers every year. It is a mistake, when planting Bougainvillea 

 out, to give it unhmited root-room, the growth will be so lux- 

 uriant that it will not flower well, but if the roots are restricted 

 to a square yard of space, with soil two feet deep, the results 

 will be very satisfactory. Now that we have so fine a variety 

 of this old plant as that sent out recently by Sander, it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that we shall see more of the Bougain- 

 villeas in gardens. They are beautiful greenhouse climbers, 

 doing equally well in a cool or a warm house, the long sprays 

 of bright pink flowers being admirably adapted for table-deco- 

 ration, and they show well under artificial light. 



Boston, Mass. Phnitsman. 



Chrysanthemums, Old and New. — Before the Chrysanthemum 

 season passes entirely out of memory it may be worth while 

 to say a word about the yearly accounts of the great improve- 

 ments made in this flower. Now, it is true that the new 

 flowers which are so much in vogue are large and of great 

 substance, but in all that makes for beauty few of them have 

 any greater value than those which were grown ten years ago. 

 There have been occasional gains in new forms since that 

 time, as, for example, Mrs. Alpheus Hardy and Lillian Bird, 

 and there have been some additions which were noteworthy 

 for other features, as, for example, H. VV. Lincoln, Viviand 

 Morel and a few others, but these are exceptional gains. No 

 effort has been made to secure varieties which were better for 

 cultivation in the open air, so that amateurs for the present 

 may as well confine themselves to old varieties, and especially 

 to those with thinner petals, as they are less liable to be injured 

 by frost. Years ago I cultivated the old Peler the Great, a 

 thin-petaled variety, which would endure a surprising degree 

 of cold. 

 Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Correspondence. 

 A Winter Water-garden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — One of the most quaint and interesting remnants of an 

 old Dutch homestead in Flatbush, now an incorporated part 

 of the city of Brooklyn, is the roomy old mansion built to 

 replace one burned by the American soldiers to deprive the 

 British of its shelter during the Revolutionary War. The 

 white shingled sides are divided by many windows, with their 

 original small panes, and no fewer than seven doors open out 

 into the garden and grounds. This has for many years been 

 the residence of Mr. John McElvery, who is well known for 

 his success with aquatic plants, as well as in other branches of 

 horticulture. A lot, not above a half-acre in extent, provides 

 for trim lawn spaces, two open Water-lily tanks, and masses 

 ot the best sorts of garden-tlowers from March to November, 

 and this succession of flowers is accomplished by an amateur 

 grower, without any gardener and without any structure that 

 can be dignified by the name of a greenhouse. The human 

 and historic interest of this delightful home-garden is increased 

 by a corner set apart for colonies of bees and cotes of homing 

 pigeons, and by an old-time well, recently covered over, built, 

 as a stone near its curb records, in 1796, and which, until con- 

 nection was made with the town supply five years ago, fur- 

 nished all the water used on the place. 



By an ingenious arrangement, the result of experitnents 

 during the past five years, even winter is converted into a sea- 

 son ot flowers, and on one of the coldest days last week I 

 found growing in what looked like a span-roofed cold frame, 

 abundant flowers and foliage of four varieties of tender Water- 

 lilies. In this long, low, glass-covered tank, in its setting of 

 snow frozen so hard that one could walk on its surface, were 



some thirty open flowers, pink, blue and white, and many 

 promising buds. A plant of Nymphaea Zanzibarensis azurea 

 carried twelve flowers and Ijuds, and several flowers of N. 

 dentata, each measured nine inches across their snowy petals. 

 Besides N. dentata there were in flower N. Devoniensis, N. 

 Zanzibarensis and N. Lotus, with its smaller and fuller flowers. 

 The leaves of the plants were healthy, and compared not un- 

 favorably with summer foliage, the larger ones being fourteen 

 inches across ; new ones continuously appear, so that some 

 have to be picked otf from time to time to prevent their decay 

 from overlapping. 



Mr. McElvery began with the idea of using the tanks for a 

 winter storage-house for tender and half-hardy varieties of 

 Water-lilies, but successive improvements have developed 

 this flowering winter-garden. The excavation, which measures 

 thirty-two feet in length and six feet in width, was dug three 

 feet deep and the sides and l:iottom lined with bricks set in 

 Portland cement. This has since been found to be too deep, 

 and a foot and a half of ordinary soil has been filled in ; the 

 plants, which are all in pots, are thus brought nearer the sur- 

 face. The side walls are level with the surface of the ground, 

 above which is a twelve-inch plank an inch and a quarter 

 thick ; the water is kept about two inches l)elow the top of the 

 wall. The ridge-pole along the centre supports sashes on 

 either side ; these are about fourteen inches above the water 

 at their lower end, with a pitch of eight inches from the ridge- 

 pole. The sashes can be lifted entirely, or, for ventilation, 

 may be pushed down from the top. In very cold weather 

 they are opened two or three inches during the middle of 

 each day, while in less rigorous weather more fresh air is 

 allowed. It is practicable in almost any winter weather to lift 

 a sash for a short time to allow a better view of the flowers, 

 since there is a sufficient volume of warm, steaming air inside 

 to prevent a sudden chill. In very cold weather this rising 

 mist settles in the crevices and joints, and, being frozen, her- 

 metically seals the frame, so that, after a severe night, the 

 sashes cannot be lifted until the sun has thawed them out. 



The heating of the tanks is arranged for at one end of the 

 frame, where a small pit, eight feet deep and reached by a 

 perpendicular ladder, contains standing space and a boiler- 

 room three and a half by four feet. The stove, as the arrange- 

 ments throughout, has developed under Mr. McElvery 's hands, 

 and beginning with a small, discarded heater which had made 

 the journey from Scotland years before, a self-feeding box was 

 arranged for coal above the fire-cylinder, which is encircled 

 with a boiler having a capacity of but three gallons. An inch 

 and a half supply-pipe of wrought iron isnters the bottom of 

 the boiler, the connection of the hot-water pipe being made 

 at the top of the boiler, a foot above. 



Tlie tank was at first divided into four equal sections, each 

 eight feet long, but the middle partition has been taken out, so 

 that there is now a centre section sixteen feet long, with a 

 section eight feet long at each end. A larger surface was found 

 to be desirable to allow more room for the leaves to spread, 

 and Mr. McElvery advises a width of nine feet instead of six, 

 for the same reason, and this wider stretch would still make it 

 easy to reach half-way across to remove the old leaves. The 

 central section and the smaller one nearest the furnace are 

 heated by hot-water pipes ; the small section farthest removed 

 has no piping and is used only for wintering half-hardy aquat- 

 ics and for seedlings. The glass partition above the dividing 

 wall l:>etween the first and middle sections is omitted between 

 the middle and end sections, and considerable heat reaches 

 the storage-tank in this way. The first section is heated by a 

 return-pipe which extends through the middle of it, four inches 

 from the surface of the water. For the middle tank another 

 return-pipe is carried along the bottom of the first tank at the 

 side, where it is covered with asbestos and sealed in cement 

 to prevent escape of the heat until it passes into the large sec- 

 tion, through which it extends and returns to the boiler. 

 An expansion stand-pipe is provided m each section. Besides 

 these pipes, which have the necessary check cocks, a half-inch 

 pipe is arranged to carry fresh water. With but little care the 

 water is easily kept at a temperature of seventy-five to eighty de- 

 grees, which is the best suited to the health of the plants. Snails 

 are kept in check by raising the temperature to ninety degrees 

 once a week, and afterward turning on a spray of cold water, 

 which in winter averages sixty degrees, serving also to freshen 

 the tanks. A chance rise of temperature to no degrees did 

 not injure the plants, while an accidental increase to 130 de- 

 grees once killed N. Zanzibarensis and the hardier varieties. 



In the cool section, at the reniote end of the tank, are stored 

 Water Hyacinths and some plants of Nymphaea Mexicana, 

 which have not proved entirely hardy and have been lost in 

 the open ponds. Here the foliage keeps a bright green all the 



