97 
repainting the houses in which they are grown. For this pu the 
houses have to be age Po and the plants removed. They ine y Á 
suffer severely from being crowded and stowed away in places qui 
unsuitable to their cultivation. 
To remedy this difficulty, H.M. Office of Works built last year in 
one of the private voor departments of the "rpm (* Melon 
Yard") a * relief hou This structure is 56 ft. long, 23 ft. wide, 
e in 
Rendle was adopted for the lights. Any collection can now be tran 
ferred at short notice to the “relief house” where it will be, tough 
not accessible to the publie, safe from injury till its origi quarters 
are again available for occupation. 
Palm House Heating.—During the past year the renewal of pr 
heating apparatus in the Palm House has been completed. In the 
Bulletin (pp. 42, 43) for February 1895 an account was given of the 
work done on the north win gin 1894 ata cost of 1 ante eae ng the 
ste summer the sonth wing has been dealt with in the same way. 
It is no oming generally understood that the entis of large 
structures for horticultural purposes requires a different treatment to 
that which is suitable in other cases. It is necessary to have a large 
amount of piping heated to a comparatively low temperature rather than 
a small amount at a much higher. At first sight this looks wasteful, but 
in practice it does not prove to be so. The improvement of the heating 
arrangements in the Palm een have resulted in a considerable economy 
of fuel, though there are more pipes to heat. An insufficient amount of 
pipes necessitates the furnaces batig “ driven,” with a consequent waste 
of fuel. The atm mosphere in the eii is heated by the continuous 
movement of the'hot air in contact with the pipes, which in turn is 
moisture too rapidly, to deposit it as “drip” on the cold surface of the 
glass. In cold weather it is almost im possible | to maintain the humidity 
nec 
suffer almost more from excessive dryness than from a low temperature. 
Asthe heated air ascends from the shes below it cools, and a down 
draught is set up. The use of a high level auxiliary pipe to a large 
extent remedies this. Piping is now carried round the whole of the 
Palm-House at the level of the lantern. 
the second of two spars which were presented to the Royal Gardens 
with Eo publie spirit by Edward ems Esq., of the firm of Messrs. 
Anderson, Anderson, an The first was from British Columbia, 
and was 118 feet in length. It was preki in course of erection in 
1859. The existing spar came from Vancouver’s Island, and is 159 feet 
in length. It was erected in 1861, and is believed to be the tallest 
spar 
dually Trati S and on examination it was pronounced by the 
p PERY be unsafe. Messrs. Anderson, A nderson, and Co. were, 
u 91285. . C 
