382 
HEATING HORTICULTURAL BUILDINGS. 
bulbs in clumps, or rows, across the bed, from 
two inches and a half to four inches deep, 
covering them one inch with sand previous to 
covering them with the soil. After the beds 
are thus planted, rake and dress the ground 
well ; and thus the work is completed till the 
spring, except keeping the surface clear of 
weeds, and stirring it occasionally with a 
small fork, which accelerates their growth. 
The different varieties flower in succession, 
from the middle of May till the end of June ; 
and large beds produce a splendid effect. 
By thus early planting they get well esta- 
blished, and will resist a hard frost ; as a proof 
of which, during the severe frosts of 1837-8 
and 1840-1, ixias, sparaxes, and tritonias, were 
preserved by a covering of two inches of sand 
spread over the surface of the beds, as reported 
in the Gardeners' Magazine. But the climate 
may in some places be too severe ; and in this 
case the best way will be to plant the bulbs 
in pots. One gladiolus is enough in a three- 
inch pot ; and three ixias or babianas, sparaxes 
or tritonias ; and plunge them in old tan 
ashes or sand, under the protection of a frame, 
until April, when they might be turned out 
into the open borders. 
After all, we would take no such trouble in 
England. We recommend those who wish to 
cultivate bulbs in good earnest, first to well 
drain their borders ; then mix half loam from 
rotted turf and turfy peat, or, for want of it, 
leaf mould and sand, and well amalgamate it; 
the layer of good well-decomposed cow-dung, 
or dung from an old melon frame, two inches 
thick, in the bottom. In this border plant all 
the sorts of bulbs that will stand a mild winter; 
if frost threatens to be severe, cover the bor- 
der with litter during the prevalence of the 
bad weather, and by the end of April it may 
be removed. The blooms will be far better 
than in pots, or than the bulbs turned out of 
pots, and all the kinds will flower strong. 
The planting is a matter of taste ; we recom- 
mend all the sorts being kept separate ; patches 
to be always distinct. It is far better than mixing 
them ; and be it remembered that if the border 
be well drained, and the soil good, there will 
be no danger in leaving them in the ground 
two seasons. We should so plant them as to 
enable us to leave them the third season ; when 
we should take them up, re-make the border, 
and plant them again. In the absence of a com- 
plete border or bed of bulbs, it will be found 
desirable to use the pots ; but in such case, 
we should put out the pots and all into the 
borders. Then we might take them up safely ; 
and for this purpose we should plant the gladi- 
olus in six-inch pots, and the smaller buli^s in 
four-inch, or what mny be understood as forty- 
eights and thirty-twos of the potteries. And so 
also with lilies and other larger bulbs ; because 
where all other kinds of plants are grown in 
a border, the lilies and smaller bulbs would 
be overrun, and therefore damaged. But we 
repeat our advice to everybody fond of flowers, 
— cultivate bulbous-rooted plants extensively. 
HEATING HORTICULTURAL BUILDINGS. 
There has been more money wasted in hot- 
water apparatus misapplied than it would be 
possible to estimate ; and this has arisen from 
various causes. First, the want of information 
as to the nature of the heat, and the length 
of time to be applied. Secondly, to the love 
of change and the number of theorists engaged 
in the trade. Thirdly, from its application in 
many cases where it is by no means applic- 
able. It is no uncommon thing to see an 
enormous boiler, capable of heating a hundred 
yards of iron pipe, applied to a small house, 
that a conical boiler of a fifth of the cost 
would be sufficient for ; and scarcely one in a 
dozen are appropriate. In our opinion no- 
thing can be so good for a stove, nothing so 
bad for a greenhouse. In one we require a 
regular and continuous heat ; in the other we 
only want the means of suddenly raising the 
temperature to keep out a frost, and the less 
we apply heat the better. If we have hot 
water, the boiler should be small, the pipes 
thin, the fire effective ; but in working both, 
we pronounce in favour of a well-constructed 
flue as the best. 
Now we come to the construction. Sup- 
posing it to be anything under fifty feet, 
let the furnace be at the back, let the flue be 
built above the ground on bricks put edge- 
ways, at such distances as will receive the 
joints of a bottom of large paving tiles, on 
which make the flue without a dip, saci'ifice a 
door, and make one do at one end rather than 
dip under one ; make this bottom reach all 
round to the door way, and on this bottom, 
which should be two inches from the front 
wall, bricks are laid edgeways to make the 
sides of the flue, and another row of tiles on 
the top forms the bottom of a return flue. 
At the end where the return is made, the 
bottom of the top flue, and the top of the 
bottom flue are not carried home, but the edge 
is made rounding, and a six-inch opening is 
to be left for the smoke to return. The return 
flue is built like the bottom one all the way 
back and carried into the chimney, which may 
be built over the furnace. It will be observed 
that we have no flue at the back, and in lean- 
to-houses, the front is all that need be heated. 
The top of the flue is of paving tiles, well 
jointed, and it would hardly be credited how 
rapidly the houses ai'e heated by a flue of this 
description ; none of the warmth is lost. The 
inside, next the wall, aives out its surface- 
