JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 17,1881. ] 
213 
liable to degenerate, and capricious in flowering. The price of 
new certificated hybrids, however, places them beyond the reach 
of most amateurs. Take Mr. Kelway’s, for instance. Of those 
of last year the cheapest, the Countess of Craven or Maid of 
Orleans, is half a guinea going up to 50s., the price of Samuel 
Jennings. Leaving such out of consideration when recommending 
Gladiolus culture generally, permit me to state the system that 
for years has enabled me to increase my limited stock consider¬ 
ably, and that gives me at all times and in every season fine 
spikes. As this is the planting season, as no garden should be 
without Gladioli, and as “ D., Deal's," excellent notes were prin¬ 
cipally retrospective, I may not inappropriately do this, and for 
brevity under the following heads— 
Soil .—The soil should be free, well pulverised, and tolerably 
rich. If not so, trench and dig in manure in autumn. The ground 
need not be left idle, as any surface-rooting hardy annual will do 
no harm and look well. The manure should be buried shallower 
than usual, as the winter rains would otherwise carry the better 
parts beyond the reach of the feeding roots. 
Manure .—There is nothing like finely divided old hotbed 
manure, or in its absence good saturated stable manure. Long 
strawy material is worthless. The former would answer admirably 
for application at present sowing ; the latter manure, not being 
decomposed is suited for autumn manuring. 
Planting .—Plant early, especially those more tender varieties 
you have found difficult to mature. I wish to emphasise this matu¬ 
ration point, for I believe it the pivot on which success or failure 
turns. I prefer the end of February : a little protection against 
April or May frosts is easily managed. Where successions are 
necessary, the hardier and easier matured should be left last, 
though I know this is not the custom. Potting in the first instance 
would meet the case in most instances and obviate risk. 
Method .—If necessary bury some manure beneath the corms ; 
with a little clay, and a handful of clean river or road sand. The 
last is indispensable. A supply of liquid manure during the hot 
summer is very desirable.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
MARECHAL NIEL ROSE. 
Thebe has been rather a pleasing discussion in our Journal as 
to the best means of growing Marechal Niel, and it may interest 
some of your readers to know that I have under my charge here 
one tree which I suspect is older than the one alluded to by Mr. 
Bardney at Hooton Hall. I have been often told that it is the 
largest Marechal Niel in the north of England, and I have even 
heard that it is the oldest and largest in England ; but as to the 
correctness of this I leave others to decide. The age of the tree here 
is eighteen years. It is budded on the “Victoria ” stock, the length 
of which is 4^ feet. Circumference of stem 4 inches. The longest 
branch from the stock is 50 feet. The longest growth made last 
year was upwards of 20 feet. The total number of branches 
trained from the stock about twenty. The tree is planted against 
the back wall of a vinery 50 feet long, and is trained the whole 
length of the adjoining house, which is 30 feet long, thus making 
a total length of 80 feet. In addition to this length, 5 to 6 yards 
of some of the branches are trained back. The Rose is planted 
at the back of the flue, and the roots have passed under it pro¬ 
bably to the Vine border outside. The aspect is due south. The 
first year I had charge I cut fifteen hundred blooms, last year 
eighteen hundred, and this year I am promised at least two thou¬ 
sand blooms. For many weeks last year from 140 tol50 were cut. 
As to my treatment, I tie in all young wood ; and at this time 
of the year I give weekly from four to five large buckets of liquid 
manure direct from the cow house. I regret to see that many of 
your correspondents find the Marechal a delicate Rose to culti¬ 
vate. My experience has taught me otherwise, but I hope to hear 
more about aged Marechals in the country and less of delicate 
constitutions. This fine Rose tree may be inspected by visitors.— 
Waltek W. Brown, Foreman, New Gardens Nursery, Whitby. 
Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary it is 
a significant fact that exceedingly few examples of Marechal 
Niels of mature age are to be found in the country. The oldest 
and best I have heard of are on the Banksian stock, and they are 
some ten years old or thereabouts. I have long been interested in 
this fine Rose, and speak not without experience of its peculiari¬ 
ties. That it can be propagated with facility from cuttings, 
and will produce wonderful growths during the first and second 
year or so, is an undoubted fact, because it has been propagated 
in this way on an extensive scale in some of our best-known and 
largest nurseries ; but it is equally true that the plants mostly 
die at an early age. I said to the propagator in one of these nur¬ 
series not long since, “ How do you account for the mortality ? ” 
The reply was, “ I can’t tell you I’m sure, but we have many com¬ 
plaints of the fine young plants we send out dying.” These young 
plants, I may say, have been unusually fine and well grown, pro¬ 
ducing shoots 10 to 12 feet long the first season in 9-inch or 10-inch 
pots. I have had some of these plants myself, but all are dead 
now except two, and they are dwindling, having grown but little 
since they were planted in cool structures and just protected from 
frost and allowed to come on naturally. There cannot be a doubt, 
I think, of the precarious constitution of this Rose, notwithstand¬ 
ing the few isolated examples among the thousands that are grown 
that one hears of from time to time. We have lately heard a good 
deal from one of your correspondents about the Hooton Hall five 
or six-year-old plant, which cannot be regarded as an old Rose as 
Roses go, for much-pruned standards twenty years old may be 
found, and much older wall Roses of various kinds. There is that 
about the history of the Hooton Hall Marechal Niel also which 
creates misgivings as to its condition. We are told, page 188, 
that two shoots are now observed starting from the base of the 
plant, and these Mr. Hanagan thinks of cutting the whole of the 
old wood down to—the fine top that has produced the hundreds 
and thousands of blooms, and of which he has been so legitimately 
proud ! Why, I would ask, cut such a fine tree down to two 
suckers if it be flourishing as we are told it is doing ? It would 
be an almost barbarous action, and excusable only in an extreme 
emergency—to save the life of the plant for example. Mr. Hana- 
gan has, it appears, repeated this cutting-down process from time 
to time with other plants of the same variety. As to the crop of 
flowers “exhausting the energies” of the “Marechal” or any 
other Rose, that is an open question. That the fruit or seeds do 
exhaust a plant no one doubts, but it has yet to be proved that a 
crop of mere flowers has any debilitating effect whatever. It is 
just as reasonable to suppose that a Vine or Peach, &c., can be 
exhausted by being permitted to flower only without being 
allowed to bear fruit; but such does not happen. We should 
certainly expect a Vine or Peach, from which the flowers were 
removed annually as soon as they fairly expanded, to go on grow¬ 
ing vigorously for an indefinite time, and if the Rose is an excep¬ 
tion to the rule it is for those who maintain as much to explain 
why it is so.—J. S., Yorkshire, 
WEEKS’S HYDRO-CALORIC COIL—A COMBINED 
MODE OF HEATING AND VENTILATING. 
This system cannot be better described than in the words of 
the inventors of it, and their description with the accompanying 
illustrations will make the subject plain to our readers. 
“ In addition to warming the air of the hothouse, room, or apart¬ 
ment in which the apparatus stands, it at the same time brings in 
from the outside a constant stream of fresh warm air, and that, too, 
without creating the slightest draught. 
“ On reference to the illustrations it will be seen that the coil, 
which stands on a kind of wooden box, presents outwardly the ap¬ 
pearance of an ordinary hot-water coil, having top and bottom iron 
chambers connected by vertical pipes. On examining the plan, 
fig. 51, and section, fig. 49, however, it will be seen that each of these 
vertical pipes, which are 2-inch, contains a smaller or 1-inch air-pipe 
running through its entire length—in fact, right through the coil, and 
having its open ends exposed at the top and bottom. At the top the 
air-pipe is continued about 1§ i nc h into the chamber B, the open top 
of which is covered by an ornamental iron grating C. The box or 
chamber A, is connected by a zinc tube or some other kind of channel 
with the external air. It also has flaps or doors, D d, for opening 
into the house or room. 
“ The effect of this very simple and ingenious arrangement is, that 
when the apparatus is in operation the heated external surface of the 
coil (or part seen), heats the air of the room in the ordinary way; 
but while this is going on, the air in the small inner pipe becomes 
rapidly hot and naturally rises quickly into the chamber B, and 
thence through the grating C into the house, drawing in its course a 
constant current of fresh air from the outside, which in its turn 
passes through the coil, becomes warm, and enters the room as 
before. The following is a table showing the amount of air this coil 
will bring in and the temperature. 
Temperature of 
water in 
apparatus. 
No. of cubic feet 
of fresh warm 
air drawn in per 
minute. 
Temperature at 
which the air 
is admitted into 
the house. 
126° 
15 
90° 
128°: 
191 
98° 
136° 
20A 
109° 
142° 
24 
114° 
144° 
22A 
116° 
148° 
23 
117° 
“By means of the chamber b the air can be admitted dry or 
