1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
341 
The Southern Bush-Honeysuckle. 
In the rocky woods at the North, there grows 
a small Bush-Honeysuckle, a small and not very 
showy species, with honey-yellow flowers, the 
Dienilla trifida. This species was called Dier- 
villa lutea by some of the older botanists, and 
SOUTHERN BUSH HONEYSUCKLE. 
seeing that name on a catalogue we ordered 
the plant. When the shrub came in flower, 
we found to our gratification that instead of the 
plant of the Northern States we had one pecu¬ 
liar to the Southern Alleghanies, the Diervilla 
sessilifolia, which, besides being rare, is a much 
finer plant than the other. We give an engrav¬ 
ing of a flower cluster of the natural size. 
Though this Southern Bush-Honeysuckle can 
not rank as a very show}' shrub, it is an exceed¬ 
ingly neat one, and the modest color of its 
abundant flowers makes it an acceptable addi¬ 
tion to a collection. The showy and very pop¬ 
ular Wiegelas are now placed in the genus Dier¬ 
villa, but they differ from our species in the size, 
shape, and color of the flowers. 
The Common or Scotch Broom. 
The engraving shows plainly enough that the 
Broom belongs to the Pea or Pulse family. It 
is a shrub usually growing from three to six 
feet or more in liiglit, and is found throughout 
Europe. In the south of Europe it becomes a 
small tree, 20 or 30 feet high. Its tough and 
slender green branches are angled, and bear 
small leaves, the lower ones of three, and the 
upper ones of a single leaflet. The flowers are 
borne in the axils of the leaves, are of a golden- 
yellow color, showy and fragrant. When the 
flower first opeus, the style and stamens are 
confined in the keel, but when touched or dis¬ 
turbed by an insect, they suddenly spring up¬ 
ward. As an ornamental shrub the Broom is 
not without beauty; the leaves are quite incon¬ 
spicuous, but the long stems are of 
a dark green, and produce a pleas¬ 
ing variety when mingled with 
other shrubbery. 
The name indicates 
one of its most 
common uses, that 
of making brooms 
for sweeping, and 
it appears to have 
been used for that 
purpose in ancient 
times as well as in 
modern ones. In 
the domestic econ¬ 
omy of some parts 
of Europe, the 
Broom is used for 
thatching, filling in 
hurdles for sheep 
and cattle shelters, 
and for fuel. Sheep 
are said to eat it 
readily at all sea¬ 
sons, and there have 
been times in Scot¬ 
land, when the 
ground was long 
covered with snow, 
that it has fur¬ 
nished the only 
available food for 
the flocks. The 
branches, when rot¬ 
ted and beaten, af¬ 
ford a fiber from 
which a good coarse 
cloth may be made, 
and in those coun¬ 
tries where it at¬ 
tains a large size, the 
wood is valued for 
ornamental work. 
Formerly the plant was in repute as a diuretic 
and purgative. It is most readily propagated 
by seeds which arc produced abundantly. The 
botanical name is Cytisus scoparius , though some 
botanistsput it in a separate genus, Sarothamnus. 
--- -m Bm -«-«.- 
How to Build a Cheap Greenhouse. 
BY JAMES HOQQ. 
[In the article upon building a greenhouse, 
given last month, the portion descriptive of the 
internal arrangement was by accident omitted, 
and is given here.— Ed.] 
Interior of House. —Inside, the front plat¬ 
form for the plants is carried along the two 
sides and the end. It is 8 feet wide and 12 
inches below the upper and inner edge of the 
plate strip. The walks are 3 feet wide, although 
they may be reduced to 2 feet 9 inches, and the 
extra 3 inches added to the center platform; 
the lower half of this platform is of the same 
liiglit as the front platform, and 18 inches wide; 
the center shelf is raised 10 inches, and is 3 
feet wide. 
All the lower sashes are screwed fast to the 
rafters, as is also every alternate upper sash, the 
intermediate ones sliding down to afford ven¬ 
tilation. A cap 3 inches wide is fastened to 
each side rail of the upper sashes that are fast¬ 
ened down; these cap pieces cover the side rails 
of the sliding sashes l 1 ^ inches, and prevent the 
wind from lifting them and blowing them off. 
For the purposes of ventilation it is not well to 
have the lower sashes loose, as the cold air ad¬ 
mitted directly over the plants very frequently 
COMMON OR SCOTCH BROOM. 
does injury to them, especially if there is the 
least neglect in watering them. All the venti¬ 
lation required in a house of this size can be had 
by lowering the upper sashes and opening the 
door at the end of the house. 
The sliding sashes should be hung with green¬ 
house sash pulleys, which arc made in such a 
way that the cord can not slip off the sheave 
and jam between it and the jaws of the pulley. 
They can be had at any of the larger city hard¬ 
ware stores. The lower end of the sash-cord is 
fastened to belaying pins, or some similar con¬ 
trivance, attached to the rafter over the front 
platform. The joints of the rafters should all 
be put together with thick white lead and oil, 
and care should be had that the joints are 
mitered true and square. 
Heating. —A really cheap method of heat¬ 
ing greenhouses, that is, one relatively as 
cheap as the structure itself can be made, has 
not yet been devised, although it has occupied 
the minds of garden architects for many years. 
The objects to be attained are: first, cheap ma¬ 
terials; secondly, quick diffusion of the heat 
throughout the house; and thirdly, the reten¬ 
tion of heat in the apparatus, to be given out in 
the latter part of the night, when it is not con¬ 
venient for one to attend to the firing. The 
cheapest mateiials are brick, built into the form 
of a flue; for giving out heat quickly, sheet- 
iron pipe, like ordinary stove-pipe, is the best; 
and for retaining heat nothing yet devised is 
