COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



213 



Heating by Steam. 



Enquiry has reached us lately as to whether steam could not be used 

 advantageously instead of hot water for heating greenhouses, and on 

 making enquiry ourselves we find that a special boiler for the purpose 

 has been introduced by Mr. Richardson, of Altrincham. The chief point 

 claimed for the system is that the temperature can be regulated to a 

 nicety and also maintained at an almost absolutely constant point so as 

 to avoid fluctuations both above and below the particular temperature 

 desired. A second point claimed for it is that it is very economical cf 

 fuel ; and, further, that it is a particularly clean system. A gentleman 

 who has tried it says that in a large Orchid house the temperature was 

 maintained night and day during a very cold spell of frost at sixty degrees 

 regularly and constantly. We cannot speak from our own experience ; 

 we have not yet seen the system working. 



Beech-tree Pest. 



In Volume XXVI., at page 851, we asked for information of cases 

 where Cryptococcus fagi had been known to attack Copper Beeches, as 

 there was an erroneous idea abroad that Copper-leafed Beeches were exempt 

 from the pest. A Fellow, writing from Loughborough, says : " I have 

 three Copper Beeches nearly fifty feet high, and they have all had the 

 pest, but they (as well as the Common Beeches) have been cured by 

 scrubbing them well with Gishurst compound made into a gocd lather. 

 Sometimes a little patch of the pest appears again, but it is instantly got 

 rid of by one scrubbing. I think every Beech tree on the place has had 

 the pest, and all have been cured in this way, as also have some of the 

 finest Beeches I ever saw on an estate in Wiltshire, whose owner was 

 almost in despair about them ; in fact, I have never known it fail if taken 

 in time before the pest gets to the branches, for it generally begins at the 

 bottom and moves upwards." Another correspondent writes : " Having 

 noticed that a very fine Copper Beech was badly attacked by this insect, 

 which was destroying so many Beech trees in the neighbourhood, I 

 determined to try and save the tree, if possible to do so. I made a paraffin 

 emulsion by boiling two pounds of soft soap in a gallon of water until 

 dissolved : this I poured into a glazed pan in which I had put one quart of 

 paraffin. I then beat up the mixture with a handful of twigs from a birch - 

 broom until all the oil was thoroughly mixed up. I then poured in 

 twelve gallons of boiling water. A man was then sent up to the top of 

 the tree with the emulsion and a scrubbing-brush, and the stem and the 

 branches near the stem were thoroughly scrubbed down. For five years 

 after this was done the tree, to my knowledge, remained perfectly clean 

 and free from the pest, and, I believe, has remained so ever since." 



Distribution of Surplus Plants. 

 Fellows should bear in mind that the Society has never pretended to 

 distribute very rare and valuable plants amongst the Fellows. How could 

 it be done for the subscription paid ? All the Society professes to do is to 

 distribute by ballot all surplus plants instead of throwing them on the 

 rubbish heap. Any one knows that if you want to raise a few plants t f 



