107G 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Oct 



COLD PIT DEPARTMENT. 



Amongst nurserymen, ;uul in extensive botanical gardens, 

 tliese struct lucs are very connnon, and are found to be very 

 useful appendages for wintering many half-hardy and often 

 many green-house plants. These should now be refreshed 

 with fresh coal-ashes, gravel, or other similar material, upon 

 their bottoms or floors, upon which the plants are to be 

 placed. A very considerable portion of the Cape heaths, and 

 not a few of the New-Holland plants may be placed in them, 

 which, with a little care in covering up, and regular manage- 

 ment, will survive the winter better than plants in an ill-kept 

 green-house. 



And in such pits may with propriety be kept all or most of 

 the delicate varieties of China roses, of which the yellow China, 

 as our figure represents, is amongst the most interesting ; and 

 the sweet-scented China, which is too delicate to prosper well 

 in most situations, could be brought to the greatest perfection 

 if kept in pits of this kind during the winter months. 



To those whose circumstances do not admit of having green- 

 houses, commodious accommodation could be easily and at 

 iittle expense obtained by the use of pits, which, if kept 

 water-tight, and the frost excluded, which can always be done 

 oy covering sufficiently, tolerable collections of exotic plants 

 might then be expected to be met with, not only in our su- 

 b'urban gardens, but in the gardens of every private individual 

 throughout the kingdom, whose taste or fancy might lead him 

 to their cultivation. 



