WINTER REPOSE OF PLANTS — DECEMBER. 
253 
feel interest in the few adduced facts, I beg earnestly to recommend a careful study 
of the original article in the " Journal of the Horticultural Society." In the mean- 
time, there was given in the " Gardeners' Chronicle" of Saturday, October 30th, 
p. 717 — middle column — a plan of what is called a Polmaise pine pit by a 
gardener to the Duke of Leeds. The plan is but loosely described in words, but 
the wood-cut may convey a fair idea of the structure of Mr. Meek's inner or air-pit : 
Rejerence to the Engraving.— 1, Lid over tank; 2, 
Plunging material (old tan) ; 3, Brick tank, lined with 
cement, 3 feet by 1 foot 6 inches, and 9 inches deep ; 4, 
Ventilator, closed ; 5, Wood beams, 4 inches square, 
covered with slabs, over which turves are laid ; 6, Ven- 
tilators along front and end of pit, to be opened at plea- 
sure ; a, cold-air drain ; F, Flues ; G, Chimney ; h, 
Stoke-hole ; I, Stove ; K, Ground Level. The iron plate 
is set in a groove in the brickwork, filled with silver 
sand. The stove is built with fire-bricks, a brick in 
length. The iron plate is 1 inch thick, with a ledge an 
inch deep. The stove is built on a strong flag, supported 
on one side by two brick pillars ; the other side is laid 
over the end of the cold-air drain. 
the cold air drain is however dissimilar, yet may very well suit where it passes to 
and through the outer wall. 
Having now endeavoured to justify Mr. Meek's integrity of purpose, ability of 
design, and real success, I leave his memory to honour, and shall close these 
remarks by showing how they are intended to bear upon the leading subjects of 
this article. 
It is of consequence that a gardener should possess entire command of vapour, of 
air, and of temperature in every chief plant house— the stove particularly. Perfect 
equability is also a prime requisite ; by which we would express, not a sameness of 
degree either by day or night — for that would be to subvert the law of nature- — but 
an equal distribution of heat at any one time throughout the atmosphere of any house. 
There is in Mr. Meek's article a table of " Temperatures in the iron-roofed stove," 
of the Society's gardens, which exhibits the variations of heat therein three times a 
day, during an entire week of February, 1846, and proves the wasteful expense of 
fuel and irregularity of action. Mr. Meek assured me, that during the hard winter 
of that year, he had purposely avoided any outer coverings of his span-roof, although 
the house was fully exposed, and every quarry left without puttied laps; nevertheless 
