220 



RErOHT ON THE 



better principle than that of allowing the branches to ascend at 

 the above angle for a little way from the stem, could not be 

 adopted. 



The orange-trees are magnificent. Their winter-quarters are 

 below the terrace of the Palace ; consequently, they have only 

 light in front, which, of course, is lofty, otherwise trees thirty 

 feet in height could not be admitted. The number of orange- 

 trees is 1500. Some are 300 years old, with stems thirty-nine 

 inches in circumference. One has the inscription " Seme en 

 1421 Its age must, therefore, be 426 years, and it is probably 

 the oldest exotic in existence. The trees are planted in boxes 

 made of oak ; and these boxes are said to last from fifteen to 

 twenty years. 



Market Garden Establishment of M. Truffaut, Hue des 

 Chantiers, Versailles. — This we visited after leaving the Royal 

 Gardens, March 8th. Forcing, particularly of pine- apples, is 

 here carried on extensively. The pine-suckers in autumn are 

 put in three-inch pots. In the following April they are turned 

 out of these pots into a bed, where they remain till the end of 

 October. They are then taken up, disrooted, potted into seven- 

 inch pots, and then placed in the fruiting pit till March or 

 April, when they show for fruit. They are then turned out of 

 the pots into a bed of sandy peat soil, newly prepared for their 

 reception. This bed is heated underneath by hot water in open 

 copper troughs, six inches wide and only two inches deep. The 

 chamber in which these troughs are placed is eighteen inches 

 deep. Over this chamber the soil in which the plants grow is 

 supported by wood and tiles. The boiler is copper. 



In two compartments, where bottom heat for the pine-apples 

 is supplied by means of hot water, top heat is obtained from a 

 six-inch cast-iron pipe, serving as a flue from the same fire 

 which heats the water for bottom heat. From the fire at one 

 end it uniformly ascends along the front, till it terminates in a 

 brick chimney at the farther end of the compartment. The joints 

 of the cast iron pipe are merely cemented with clay. There 

 is a fire at each of the opposite ends of the two compartments ; 

 and the chimney where the pipes terminate is in the middle, at 

 the front. Hot water was previously employed for top heat ; 

 but the tubular cast-iron flue was found to be more effective, 

 with less fuel, than was required for the hot water. This mode 

 certainly deserves to be made the subject of experiment in order 

 to ascertain exactly its advantages, so as to be able to state them 

 in numerical terms. In the first place, it will be necessary to 

 take into consideration the expense of one cast-iron pipe of six 

 inches diameter, compared with two four-inch pipes, flow and 



