24 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTIAGE GARDENER. 
[ Janaary 8, 1885. 
since these plants were introduced. Fourteen of these are 
Japanese varieties, and furnish a good illustration of the 
popularity of particular groups of plants. Azaleas and 
Carnations have an equal position, fifteen varieties of each 
having taken honours, most of the Azaleas being of conti¬ 
nental origin. The other groups of plants are represented 
by smaller numbers, though including some admirable 
varieties. 
On another occasion a few of the most beautiful or useful 
of the plants in the several groups may be noted; for the 
present the foregoing general review will suffice to show that 
the demand for new plants is satisfactory and encouraging to 
those engaged in trade. 
VINERIES, VINE BORDERS, AND VINES. 
The present is a good time for those contemplating the 
erection of new vineries to proceed with the work, and as there 
are annually new readers of the Journal of Horticulture to be 
instructed on all matters pertaining to gardening, I propose to 
assist those in need of aid by briefly indicating the procedure to 
be adopted. 
The first step to be taken in this direction is selecting a 
suitable site on which to erect the vinery, or range of vineries. 
This should be in a central part of the kitchen garden and be 
'well exposed to the south, the vinery running east and west, so 
as to have a due south aspect. If the ground on which it is 
determined to erect the vineries be moderately high—that is, 
4 or 5 feet above the highest known level of the water under¬ 
neath, the floor line of the house may be about inches above 
the ground line outside; but, on the other hand, should the 
situation be a low one, it will be necessary to raise the vineries 
sufficiently to admit of the base of the Vine borders being made 
about 9 or 12 inches above the highest known water line from 
the surface. 
Shape and Width op Vinery. —Experience tells us that 
a three-quarter or unequal span is the best shape for a vinery— 
that is to say, the most suitable house for the production of 
early, midseason, and late Grapes. This house should be about 
17 feet wide (inside measurement), 10 feet high from the floor 
line at the back, 13 feet from the ridge, and 5 feet in front, 
including 3 feet of sash and plating, the latter 6 inches wide by 
3 inches thick in the middle, thus giving an angle of about 30° 
to the sun. The front wall, 9-inch work, should be built upon 
arches turned from 9-inch piers at 4 feet from centre to centre, 
and the back wall should be 14 inches thick for the first 8 feet, 
the remaining 2 feet to consist of 9-inch work. A shelf can be 
fixed in the recess thus made. Concrete to the depth of 12 or 
15 inches should be laid to foundations of all walls and piers. 
None but well-seasoned Baltic fir of the best quality and 
free from knots should be employed in the erection of vineries 
and other horticultural structures. The sash bars, 1 inch wide 
and 2 inches deep, may be moulded, as also should the under 
side of rafters, which must be 6 inches deep, and 3£ inches wide 
on the top, to admit of a piece of wood 1| inch wide and If inch 
deep being nailed thereon as a division to the roof sashes, and 
which, with the latter, should be covered with a board 3£ inches 
wide, seven-eighths of an inch thick, and having a double chan¬ 
nelled surface for carrying the rain water into the cast iron 
guttering. The front roof lights should be 12 feet long, and 
3 feet ventilating lights, in lengths of from 1G to 20 feet, which 
must be properly secured to the ridge capping by means of stout 
brass butts and screws. The lights forming the “ hip-roof ” 
should be 6 feet long, and like the 12 feet lengths, may be secured 
to the rafters by long screws, each light to consist of frame and 
three sash bars, having a half-inch iron traversal tie-rod through 
the middle for strength, and be glazed with 21 oz. glass in 
lengths of 3 feet. Previous to fixing the 12 feet lights to the 
rafters, two pieces of hoop iron, 1 inch wide, quarter of an inch 
thick, and 4 feet long, should be fixed edgeways in iron castings 
secured to the side of the rafters, the one at 3 feet from the 
bottom, and the other 6 feet higher, as bearers for the lights. 
A capping of H inch thick board, extending downwards 4 inches 
on either sid) the ridge, should be secured to the latter, and to 
this a heptagon-shaped bar of wood, 3 inches by 2£ inches thick, 
should be fixed for supporting ornamental iron cresting and 
finials. The internal and external doors may be 6 feet 6 inches 
high, 3 feet wide, and be well framed, having sunk moulded 
panels, and be hung on stout brass butts. The external doors 
should be fitted with East’s patent solid brass mortice green¬ 
house lock and furniture, and the inner doors with brass fasten¬ 
ings. I need scarcely say that the work should be well done, all 
joints should be close fitting and have clean cut tenons, and the 
roof and wall plates should be morticed and pinned together at 
proper intervals. 
The ventilators can be worked by machinery, the apparatus 
being arranged for opening the front sashes simultaneously in 
each compartment, and the top lights, which should shut down 
on the top of the 12 feet lights in two sections. The long and 
short, front and back rafters may be tied together by ornamental 
cast iron angle pieces, extending 2 feet 3 inches under each 
rafter, and secured thereto by means of four (two to each side) 
half inch-thick square headed wood screws. In preparing the 
model for these castings, provision must be made in the orna¬ 
mental, and at the same time strengthening part of the individual 
tie-beams, to admit of a 1 inch thick iron bar being passed hori¬ 
zontally through the entire number at 9 inches from the apex of 
angle piece. 
Pathways. —Cast iron grating of an ornamental character 
set in a wooden frame and resting on piers, is undoubtedly the 
neatest, best, and in time the cheapest kind of pathway to be 
employed in forcing houses, the next being that made of strips 
of well-seasoned Baltic fir, 3£ feet long, 3 inches wide, and 
1 inch thick, nailed transversely, 1 inch apart, on three oak 
sleepers 4i inches thick, and 3 inches wide, and in convenient 
lengths, say 12 to 16 feet, according to the length of the house 
to be thus furnished with pathway. The sleepers, which should 
be supported by brick piers at short intervals, and underside of 
trellis must be cresoted to resist damp before being laid down 
for traffic. 
Wiring. —I consider the space of 16 or 17 inches between 
the glass and trellis amply sufficient for the development of 
healthy Vine foliage without its coming in contact with glass 
when the laterals are kept tied down to the trellis. The best 
way to wire a vinery is to secure 1 j inch wide and quarter inch 
thick iron hook-shaped bracket to the mullions within 9 inches 
of the rafters, with the hook facing outward, fixing longer but 
similarly shaped brackets to the hip rafters. Into the brackets 
thus fixed place, back and front, a length of hoop iron of the 
same stoutness and size as the formei’, and extending the full 
length of the vinery; then, beginning at 4 feet from the bottom 
of the rafters, fix three 12 inch long and half-inch thick screw 
eyes 3 inches into each of the 15 feet rafters at 4 feet apart, 
after which pass a half-inch thick iron bar through each set of 
screw eyes the entire length of the house. This done, obtain 
sufficient lengths (about 20 feet 6 inches long) of one-eighth of an 
inch thick, well-strained charcoal wire, to reach from the front 
horizontal flat bearer to the corresponding one at the back. 
Each wire must be furnished with a half-inch wide and quarter- 
inch thick hook, to be slipped over hoop iron bearers, which 
should be fixed in the brackets flatwise, with the edge in a line 
with the angle of the roof. Connecting the wire and hook in front 
should be a screw-eye, 4£ inches long and a quarter of an inch 
thick, and swivel for the purpose of tightening and slackening 
the wires, which may be a foot apart when necessary. They 
should rest upon the series of half-inch thick iron horizontally 
fixed rods, but the full strain and weight of the trellis, when 
heavily laden with Grapes, will be borne by the 1-inch bar fixed 
in ornamental tie-beams, and the two hoop-iron bearers back and 
front. Vine trellises thus made are both neat and substantial.— 
H. W. Ward, Longford Castle. 
(To be continued.) 
CARNATIONS. 
Although the present may seem to some a strange time to 
write about these charming summer flowers, yet to those ac¬ 
quainted with their requirements some remarks upon or sugges¬ 
tions as to their future management will not seem out of place, 
and in many instances the ultimate result will be materially 
affected by the forethought now exercised. In Carnation culture 
in the open ground a certain amount of forethought is essential, 
as all the ground intended for their reception should at once be 
defined and prepared. This is especially the case if a collection 
is grown, as an especial plot of ground in an open situation 
should be afforded, or a portion of a good border where the col¬ 
lection can be accommodated. If this is determined upon the 
preparation of the soil is an easy matter, the most suitable soil 
being a well-drained sandy loam fairly well enriched with stable 
manure. It is not my intention to rigidly prescribe a certain 
compost as absolutely necessary for Carnations, for such might 
cause some to despair of growing such charming and, in my 
opinion indispensable flowers. Mr. Cobbett once said, “For my 
part, as a thing to keep and not to sell—as a thing the possession 
of which is to give me pleasure—I hesitate not a moment to 
