38 
SLATE FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 
of Roses and Gesneraceous plants, with what success must be yet fresh in the 
memory of all who ' had the opportunity of viewing the very superior specimens 
exhibited by him at the great metropolitan exhibitions, and is amply testified by 
the prizes they bore away. It is at least convincing that it is possible to grow 
plants well in slate-boxes. We do not, however, anticipate that they will ever 
become general for small plants ; a few, by way of variety, may be used for 
windows or balconies, or dispersed amongst others in the plant-houses. 
Besides the manufacture of boxes, slate is adapted for many other garden 
purposes, such as the construction of cisterns for supplying plant-houses with 
water, and for the culture of stove and greenhouse aquatics ; long boxes for 
mignonette, or other small fragrant or showy plants, for the sill of a window ; 
for the stages and shelves of a greenhouse or stove ; as a covering for hot water- 
tanks, or air-chambers ; for the sides of low pits, or rather fixed frames, intended 
for raising seeds, young plants, and propagational purposes generally, or for 
preserving summer border plants through the winter ; for ventilators in the back 
and front of brick-pits or small houses ; and Mr. Beck has also substituted 
this material for wood in his brick pits, as a bed for the lights to run in. For the 
two last purposes slate has an advantage over wood, as it neither swells nor 
contracts so much with the fluctuations of temperature, and it is also free from 
warping, all which are often productive of considerable inconvenience and annoyance 
to the culturist. The hard quality of slate renders it a desirable substance for pit 
rafters on another account : — the grooves at each side necessary for preventing water 
entering the pit are less liable to be broken, or to become defective, as sometimes 
happens when wood is employed, from warping. 
Slabs of slate may be serviceable in a variety of other ways in a garden ; — for 
edgings (especially in a kitchen-garden) ; for standing plants on during the summer 
season, and as a flooring for frames in winter. For these latter purposes it is of 
great benefit in keeping out slugs and worms. Moisture, too, is well known to be 
the greatest bane of plants in pits and frames during winter ; and ashes, which are 
the most common flooring, are a continual source of damp. Slate, on the contrary, 
keeps all perfectly dry, as it allows any water that may be given to drain away. 
It might be an improvement to have the bottom elevated about a foot from the 
ground, resting the slate on brick- work. By using a little cement round the edges 
of the frame, which should fit close upon the slate, worms, snails, and mice, will 
be effectually kept out. Some such flooring as this confers a further benefit, 
by preserving wooden frames, which are too often thoughtlessly placed on the 
ground in immediate contact with a damp earth, and are consequently completely 
rotten in less than half the period they ought to last. Slate slabs may also be 
used for drains and conduits. 
In the reserve ground slabs of slate, six or eight inches deep, placed parallel to 
each other at about as many inches asunder, will be useful in keeping together the 
roots of small border plants, which it is intended to remove to the flower-garden ; or 
