r 
.e^MI 
I 
52 
VINES AND VINE BORDERS. 
exception of the memoir of M. Sageret, of which we shall speak hereafter. Owing to peculiarly fortu- 
nate circumstances, we have been able to study the phenomenon of variegation under a general point 
of view. Messrs. Henrard and Son, nurserymen at Liege, have been interested in variegated plants 
for upwards of thirty years, and have collected in their establishment at St. Walburge every variety of 
tree, shrub, and herbaceous plant with variegated leaves, which they have been able to procure. Their 
nursery thus forms a real botanical hospital, in which, however, far from trying to cure maladies of 
paleness and astheny, they rather endeavour by all means to increase their number, and preserve them. 
VINES AND VINE BOKDEKS. 
By Mr. A. SHEARER, Gardener to the Marquis op Tweeddale, Tester. 
T)/7 UCH has been spoken and written on the formation of Vine Borders, and the application of heat to 
ilJiA them ; and it may appear presumption in me to attempt to give anything new. This, however, 
I do not attempt to do. But still, I cannot help thinking that we have much to learn on these 
subjects, which shall be my apology for occupying your pages. I think nearly, if not quite, all are 
agreed that it is advantageous to have the temperature of the soil where the roots of the plants are 
growing, approximating somewhat to that in which the shoots are, especially in cold damp climates, 
and in early forcing. We know that in the pot culture of plants, generally speaking, they succeed 
best when the roots are in advance of the stem, or in a medium, where the 
shoots can be supplied from the root, with the food suitable for the perfect- 
ing of the whole plant : if this be correct, which my experience leads me 
to think is the case, it follows that the general treatment of the Vine 
hitherto has not been that which it ought to be ; this would appear true, 
frcm the different modes that have been adopted to increase the temper- 
ature of the soil. The natural habit of the Vine, and our 
own reason, leads us to conclude, that it is seldom 
treated as it ought to be. True, good grapes have been, 
and will be, grown without any artificial heat to the 
soil; but I think this no reason why those same vines 
might not have been better, had the 
temperature of the soil been higher than 
it was. 
Having to erect new vineries here, the 
annexed drawing is the plan which was 
adopted — it being the desire of my 
2_i 
i 
' 
employer to heat the soil by some means or other, he being led to do so from his observations on the 
temperature of the soil, when in India. To do so by means of hot dung thrown under brick arches, 
was objectionable, from the amount of labour required to keep up anything like a steady heat. To 
cover the surface with dung was still more objectionable, from its unsightliness, its bad effects on the 
border, and its being opposed to the well-known laws of the conduction and radiation of caloric. 
"We were led to adopt the Caithness pavement, which is two inches thick, and in pieces from three 
to four feet square ; also moderately cheap. "With this was constructed a chamber, two feet six inches 
high, with nine-inch brick pillars supporting the pavement, and heated with hot-water pipes from the 
same boiler which heats the houses. "We have found it to exceed our most sanguine expectations. 
In the first place, we have a thorough drainage, and the roots cannot by any means get into the bad soil 
below ; but the most important fact is, that the temperature of the soil in the chamber at two feet 
deep, is, at all times, 9' higher than that of a border of the same aspect, not chambered. "When the 
frost has penetrated into the latter nine inches, it has only reached two inches in the chambered border ; 
that is, without any artificial heat being applied. The increase of 9° was quite unlooked-for, when 
r- 
