490 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 6, 1883. 
few standards, but with the exception perhaps of those staged hy Mr. 
Hughes I have seen them better. The untrained specimens showed a 
alight improvement over those of previous years, but there is still room 
for advance before they equal those shown at Manchester. 
The most striking plant in the Exhibition was one of Calanthe Veitchii, 
staged by Mr. A. Brown, gardener, Upton, Chester. It was the finest 
variety, with straight even pseudo-bulbs, as described by Mr. D. Thomson, 
and the spikes were fully 3 feet 6 inches in length, the plant 3 feet in 
diameter and one mass of bloom. Erica hyemali 3 was shown in wonder¬ 
fully fine condition; it is a grand Heath for purposes of exhibition at 
this season of the year. The examples referred to were staged by 
Messrs. A. It. Cox, W. Mease, and A. Brown. The plant shown by the 
former was fully 3 feet 6 inches through, with spikes of bloom fully 
18 inches in length; in fact this large specimen was equally as weil 
flowered and grown as the models of perfection we see from London 
annually. Mr. Mease’s plant was a little more stubby, while the one 
shown by the last-named was splendidly grown and bloomed, but was 
rather smaller. 
The Cyclamens staged by Messrs. It. P. Ker & Sons, and for which a 
cultural certificate was awarded, were the finest I have seen exhibited. 
Some of the plants were fully a foot through, and the whole, numbering 
a hundred or more, were large and fine. The strain was of the very 
finest, the flowers being wonderfully large. Pure white-flowered varieties, 
which are so useful, largely predominated. 
The blooms of Zonal Pelargoniums shown by Messrs. H. Cannell and 
Sons were one of the most attractive features in the Exhibition, The 
Cyclamens referred to and these attracted more attention than any other 
exhibits, the cut blooms of Chrysanthemums perhaps excepted. There 
appears to be an idea that these Zonals cannot be flowered in this 
neighbourhood or grown to the same perfection as those staged on 
Tuesday last. They will do well if they have suitable houses and are 
well grown, and it would be wise to offer a few prizes for them another 
year, which would do more towards the extension of their cultivation in 
the neighbourhood than anything else. 
Messrs. T. Bethel & Co., 24, Cable Street, Liverpool, were highly 
commended for their folding boxes for packing plants and flowers. These 
boxes are very similar to others already in the market, but they fold up 
closely, which renders them most useful, because they can be stored 
away in a very small space ; in fact, the smaller sizes when closed take 
up but little more room than an envelope. —Wm. Baedney. 
A MODEL FORCING HOUSE. 
Whether for purposes of forcing or otherwise houses are 
often constructed, especially in private gardens, more for 
appearance outside than anything else. I have seen many houses 
employed for forcing flowers and fruits differing greatly in size, 
shape, andconstruction,and many of them are almost useless. Who 
is to. blame for this it is not my intention to discuss, further than 
say in many large as well as small establishments the gardener 
is not consulted in the matter. If the houses prove unsuitable, 
which they very frequently do, the outside gardening fraternity 
blame either the gardener or the builder, and both really are 
innocent, the former having had nothing to do with them, and 
the latter only working according to orders. After taking into 
consideration various qualifications of all the houses I have seen 
for forcing purposes, the best is one recently erected by Mr. John 
Webster, Wavertree, Liverpool, in the gardens of John Walker, 
Esq., Greenfield, West Derby. Light is of the greatest import¬ 
ance, and should be one of the first points to be studied in the 
construction of houses, especially where forcing operations have 
to be conducted during the sunless days of our winters. The 
house under notice is the lightest I have seen; in short, it is a 
model of what a forcing house should be, and reflects the greatest 
credit upon both the builder and its owner. In the majority of 
forcing houses where front lights are uged the light admitted by 
them is almost rendered useless by the woodwork which sunports 
the rafters of the roof, and forms in many cases the spouU But 
in this house it is entirely dispensed with, and the spout forms 
a port on of the wall plate. There is side glass, but so placed 
that not a ray of light can be excluded. 
The house is G3 feet long, 12 feet 6 inches wide, and about 
9 feet G inches high from the ground, and is divided into two 
compartments, ‘i he brickwork of the house is 4 feet high above 
the ground level, and the front glass about 15 inches. The 
rafteis ai e about 5 feet apart, and are not so heavy as are 
generally seen, yet they are abundantly strong; between these 
are three lighter bars to support the glass. It will be seen that 
the squares of glass are large, being about 15 inches wide, and if 
I am not mistaken two form the length of the roof from the top 
ventilators, and these are formed with one square. The rafters 
of the roof are continued to the wall plate, and the stronger ones 
(every 5 feet) are secured with light angle irons inside. The 
front glass and rafters are scarcely upright, the tops slo ± ing 
inward out of the square about 1| inch. The glass which forms 
the front rests in the wall plate and fits close to the squares of 
the roof, which projects over them about half an inch. It will 
be seen that this house has front glass, and the objectionable 
woodwork and spout that are generally used with front lights 
are entirely dispensed with. The bottom ventilators are formed 
in the brickwork, one being placed under each light on both 
sides, and directly opposite the liot-water pipes; these are opened 
from the outside. The top ventilation is on the south side of 
the house only, and opens with a neat lever and screw. A rod 
of three-quarter inch iron (round) runs the whole length of the 
roof on both sides, and either runs into the main rafters or 
through them, while all the lighter ones are secured to it, to 
keep them in their place. The roof is further supported by two 
or three neat iron rods which start from the angle irons sup¬ 
porting the roof and front rafters, and are secured in the centre 
of the house by a stronger rod of iron about 18 inches in length, 
made fast in the ridge with a screw on the end that passes 
just through the centre of the rods issuing from both sides, and 
fastened with a nut. I need not give details of the internal 
arrangements; suffice it to say bottom heat is provided in one 
compartment and not in the other, the be Is are formed on each 
side, and the walk is down the centre.— Wm. Bardney. 
STORED-UP SAP IN TINES. 
Youe correspondent, “A Non-Believer” (page 465) is not satisfied with 
my “ attempt to explain and reconcile things.” I will therefore try again. 
I am asked to explain what I mean hy “ implying that Vines were depen¬ 
dent on the stored-up sap of the previous autumn till the shoots were 
long and had leaves 5 inches broad.” I have examined Vine roots in every 
stage of them existence for many years, and once at least to the extent 
of several thousands in one year, and only iu very exceptional cases 
have I found root-growth to commence before some of the leaves were 
expanded to half them full size. A vigorous one-year-old Vine cut down 
early and allowed to make only a single stem will grow from 7 inches to a 
foot in length at the top before it makes any growth at all at the root. 
Just at that time (it ought to be almost to a day) the Vine will bear to 
have all its soil shaken off and to be transplanted or repotted without a 
check, because root-growth goes on immediately. The next thing to be 
noted is, that the bluish colouring to which I referred makes its appearance 
on the pale green leaves in blotches at this identical stage of the Vine’s 
progress, never before and never later. It mingles in the course of a few 
days with the pale almost yellowish green, and the result of the mixture 
is the good healthy-looking green we all like to see in a growing plant. 
These are facts which anyone can prove for himself. 
Now as your correspondent will not accept my unsupported explana¬ 
tions I must call witnesses. Dr. Hooker in “ Botany,” one of the series 
of scientific primers issued by Macmillan & Co., says at page 30:— 
“ Nourishment is taken up by the root hams and not by the growing 
point.” In Johnston and Cameron’s “ Elements of Agricultural Chemis¬ 
try,” eleventh edition, at page 59 I read—“ The root sends out fibres in 
every direction through the soil in search, as it were, of water and of liquid 
food, which its extremities suck in and send forward with the sap to the 
upper parts of the tree. The part of the roots where absorption chiefly 
takes place is near the extremities, but it has been shown that the tops of 
the roots or spongioles take no part in the process.” Here, then, are two 
witnesses such as I presume your correspondent will treat with respect, 
who testify that the nourishment is taken in by the root hams ; and as 
these hairs do not occur on any but newly made roots, I must leave it to 
him to point out how they can take up nourishment when they are non¬ 
existent. I would recommend “ Non-Believer,” if hp has no chance of 
finding out facts concerning common physiology by actual practice, to 
read some more recent authors than Dr. Lindley, for some of that learned 
gentleman’s physiology instead of being “accepted by all” is already 
obsolete. 
I do not know whether the following paragraph is worth treating 
seriously. Your correspondent says, “ There is really no such thing as 
storing up sap in the sense Mr. Taylor states in plants like the Vine. 
Only bulbs and tuberous shoots store food, for reasons apparent to any¬ 
one.” This was not learned from Dr. Lindley certainly, and I will quote 
one of that gentleman’s contemporaries to refute it—“ Leaves may be 
produced without roots, as may be observed on fresh shoots springing 
from trunks of felled trees, but these shoots are supported by sap con¬ 
tained in the trunk, and which has been elaborated by the leaves.”— 
(“ Thompson's Gardener's Assistant," page S3). If this is not sufficient 
see what Dr. Prantl says. In his “ Text Book of Botany,” at page 76, 
second edition, I read—“ Certain layers of cells, particularly the medul¬ 
lary rays of trees, contain in the winter a quantity of starch, which is 
absorbed and consumed during the spring, when new shoots are developed.” 
And lower down on the same page he says, “ The degree of development 
reached by plants grown in the dark depends on the supply of x-eserve 
materials, which varies in different plants.” At page 82, too, are some 
remarks which may not be uninteresting at the present time. “ The 
presence of plastic material is an indispensable condition of growth, but 
this does not necessarily imply that the nutrition of a growing plant 
depends upon the simultaneous absorption of nutritious matters from 
without; on the contrary, the young growing parts of a plant are usually 
supplied with plastic materials from the older parts which have ceased to 
grow.” 
These extracts will, I hope, be sufficient to prove that plants are not 
