December 24, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
513 
how to proceed, and not one joint has given way or burst. Of late years 
we have not employed this material, but no doubt where permanent work 
is wanted, and more especially in cases where pipes are covered in, there 
is perhaps no better material going yet. “ The loss of time in picking 
out joints” is commented on as being an unfavourable point against 
iron and sal ammoniac. Well, it is. I have a lively remembrance of a 
titter spending many hours trying to dig out such a joint, and at last 
having to give up, at the same time that the patience of the proprietor 
was exhausted. 
I do not know anything of pipes giving way during severe frost, but 
I have several times had to alter piping, and have had to add more to 
what was already down. The method of procedure was very simple. 
If we wanted to attach more piping to a house, the pipes were cut clean 
through far enough from the joints to allow the elbows or syphons to be 
used again. This of course requires to be done at each end of the house 
where the heating system enters and leaves, and at the further end 
where the flow returns. The necessary pieces are then fixed, short lengths 
of piping to make good that removed having been jointed before attaching 
to the main pipes. In a case of adding the heating system to a new house, 
the arterial pipes are cut so as to allow the two necessary tee-pieces 
to get in, a “thimble” piece jointing one end of each, and an ordinary 
spigot joint the other. A drawback, common alike to cement, vulcanite, 
and iron joints, has not been noticed by any of your correspondents. In 
all large systems of hot-water piping there is much expansion aud con¬ 
traction of the iron continually going on. Joints composed of the two 
former materials are the more easily ruptured, but in the case of the 
latter there is also risk. I have known several cases where no means of 
allowing the pipes to expand and contract had been provided, and where 
in consequence mischief followed. 
I will now mention a joiut which I employed for the first time this 
autumn, and which I imagine is well worth adopting. During summer 
I had an opportunity of visiting some of the large market-growing 
establishments near London, and, by the way, I may say they were 
worth visiting. In one of them men were busy, some bricklaying, others 
painting, others again at hot-water engineering. The latter attracted 
my attention at once, for they were making joints with a rapidity and 
ease quite novel to me. I turned to my guide for information, and I 
had everything explained verbally and by demonstration in less than 
five minutes. If I may again intrude another sentence here, it is to say 
how kindly the several growers I met explained anything that was 
asked, and how pleasantly they imparted information on cultural points. 
To return to our joints. I found they were simply indiarubber rings 
or washers, one of which formed a joint. The ring was first placed on 
the spigot end of one pipe, then the socket of another was pushed over 
it, when, with a jerk, the two seemed to go close together. I found the 
joint was efficient and durable ; as 1 saw, easy to fix, the price very 
moderate, and the vendors the Thames Bank Iron Company. I had 
some work on hand a month or two previously which would have 
saved much troub e if these rings had then been known Another was 
about to be started, and I quickly made acquaintance with the rubber 
ringq as one of the men sa ; d the joints were made like “ winking.” Of 
course there are other expansion joints, but they are expensive as com¬ 
pared with these, which I think are as cheap as anything that can be 
used for making joints.—B. 
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S JOURNAL. 
The most recent issue of this Journal (part 3, vol. xiii.) contains 
much interesting matter, including the papers and discussions at two of 
the Chiswick Conferences, together with the papers read at the ordinary 
meetings of the Society from June 9th to September 22nd. The reports 
of the Committee meetings also extend over the same period. 
The subjects comprised in the part are as follows :—“ Alpine Plants,” 
by the Rev. C. Wolley Dod, M.A. ; “ Tea-scented Roses,” by Mr. T. W. 
Girdlestone, M.A., F.L.S.; “ Conference on Hardy Summer-flowering 
Perennials—‘Wild Gardening in Meadow Grass,’by Mr. W. Robinson, 
F.L.S. ; ‘ Some of the Summer Flowers of my Garden,’ by the Rev. H. 
Ewbank, M.A.; ‘ The Picturesque Use of Hardy Summer Perennial 
Plants,’ by Miss Jekvll—“List of Hardy Perennial Plants Suitable for 
Various Purposes ; ” “ Conference on Small Hardy Fruits—‘ Strawberries 
for Private Gardens,’ by Mr. W. Allan ; ‘ Strawberries for Forcing,’ by 
Mr. G. Norman ; ‘ The Gooseberry,’ by Mr. D. Thomson ; ‘ Raspberries,’ 
by Mr. G. Wythes ;—“List of Small Fruits for Private Gardens;” 
“ Early Peaches and Nectarines,” by Mr. T. Francis Rivers; “ Orna¬ 
mental Stove and Greenhouse Plants,” by Mr. James Hudson ; “ The 
Gladiolus,” by the Rev. H. H. D’Ombrain, HA. ; “ Hard Water and Bog 
Plants,” by Mr. Geo. Paul ; “Insectivorous Plants,” by Mr. R. Lindsay ; 
“ Insect-catching Plants,” by Mr. Lewis Castle. 
From these we select for reproduction the following useful chapter 
by Mr. Geo. Paul. 
Hardy Water and Bo& Plants. 
My paper was to have been on the subject of hardy bog plants, in the 
culture of which I have had some experience. The Secretary has, I find, 
coupled them with water plants, of which I know but little. My 
remarks, therefore, on these last must be confined to giving my limited 
experience with them, an enumeration of the difficulties I have had in 
planting them in somewhat difficult places and under exceptional 
circumstances, and to giving a description of a very pretty and success¬ 
ful, if a comparatively small, water garden which my friend Mr. M. F. 
Campbell has made at Hoddesdon. I will append a list of plants which 
I have found to be useful. In the first place, I was led to pay special 
attention to hardy bag plants from possessing a small patch of natural 
bog, which, as a haunt of rushes and sphagnum, was an eyesore in an 
otherwise well cultivated garden. Such a patch is to be found in most 
large gardens and pleasure grounds situate on the hillsides of our valleys 
—a springy patch developing into a tiny marsh, and beautiful with 
masses of such flowers as the Yellow-rattle and the Cuckoo-pint, or 
covered with big Docks, Rushes, or Giant Hemlock. 
Then turning to many of the moisture-loving perennials, such as 
the Spiraeas, I was struck with their great beauty of development when 
by chance they found a moist and favourable spot, whereas when 
planted as usual in the mixed herbaceous borders one never saw their 
full beauty ; with the setting in of dry weather they failed to finish 
their growth or to produce their flowers satisfactorily, and if subjected 
to two dry autumns consecutively many of them died out altogether. 
Here there were two things—a site wanting furnishing and plants- 
seeking such a site, for there are few more lovely plants in their full 
beauty than the Spirmas, to name only one family of plants. From the 
common Meadow-sweet of our valley marshes all over England, through 
the beautiful Japanese forms, such as S. palmata and its white variety, 
up to the gigaatic kamtschatica exhibited two years ago in this hall, 
with spikes 6 to 8 feet high of light feathery flowers, all are plants 
of great beauty when fully developed, and to attain this development a 
moist, boggy spot is essential. 
There are several families of plants, which I will enumerate later on, 
which lend themselves to a like cultivation. I have made two bog 
gardens, both devoted to the growth of bog and mud plants. The first- 
was a natural sphagnum and Drosera-producing bog on the Bagshot 
sand formation, which with some little difficulty was brought into 
cultivation, so that I may perhaps briefly describe the process. 
It was a spongy piece of land about 12 yards square, about half¬ 
way down the slope of a hill, at the foot of a bed of gravel. It was 
treacherous walking to reach the little bed of Sundew, and the one 
difficulty in forming the garden was to make suitable paths. This slight 
difficulty was overcome by firmly driving in posts, and resting some long 
split trees on them ; the split branches of the same trres were then 
nailed crosswise, thus forming what the Americans call a “corduroy” 
path. The top black soil was cleared away until we reached the clay or 
watery sand (in which we found an old Oak trunk fast passing into bog 
oak). The whole was then arranged in terrace beds by means of clay 
banks, on the top of which ran the corduroy paths. The water after use 
in the top beds was led in pipes through these clay banks to the next 
lower beds, and so onwards, varying the quantity of water according to 
the amount of moisture required in each bed. 
A small pond, in which the Cape Pond weed flourishes, was made, and 
from it the water not required for the lower beds flowed into a narrow 
watercourse, along the sides of which, with their roots in the water, 
Ksempfer’s Iris blossoms well. The highest bed is the wettest owing to 
the spoDgy water-spring, and just at this point the variegated Iris 
pseudacorus luxuriated. Other mud plants used were some varieties of 
Caltha or Marsh Marigold, which for nearly a month are sheets of yellow 
blossom ; the variety in this family is more noticeable from the time of 
blooming than from the shape and variation of the flowers. On the 
sloping bank, above this bed, are naturalised masses of the beautiful 
Fern Hypolepis millefolium, while Lily of the Valley, which had 
originally grown on the bank, is preserved in situ ; the B ood-root, the 
Musk and Creeping Jenny, both famous London window-plants, the 
native Club-moss (Lycopodium clavatum), two or three British kinds 
from Westmoreland, and the Alpine Blackberry (Rubus arcticus), which 
fruits, it is said, beneath the snow of the Arctic regions, were added. 
Some curious instances of the travelling powers of plants have also 
occurred. From the drier part of this bed the Iris moved down into the 
water of the pond, whilst the Trollius, or Globe Flower, and the American 
Fern, Onoclea sensibilis, have gradually moved up on to the drier bank 
above. 
The two next beds on a lower level were planted with the North 
American Pitcher or Side-saddle Plants, Sarracenia purpurea, S. Drum- 
mondii, and S. flava. The purple variety soon made itself at home, 
flowering and seeding and producing offsets abundantly. Drummond’s 
variety exists, while flava, a native of tbei more Southern States, 
succumbed to the first hard winter. On this level the beautiful Madeira 
Orchis, 0. foliosa, produces spikes of flowers 18 inches high, whilst I 
learn that it is almost extinct in Madeira from the effects of two or 
three dry seasons. The double white and pink Ragged-robins are beauti¬ 
ful in this place ; the tall yellow Meadow-rue, and its purple and other 
forms, grow and flower freely, as do also the North American Liatrises, 
with their noble spikes of dense purple flowers, and our English Bog- 
bean, or Menyanthes. Borrowing a hint from Kew, we planted the blue 
Himalayan Poppies (Meconopsis), which have not yet had time to flower, 
but evidently intend to do so next season. The finer sorts of Iris Ksamp- 
ferii are here as well as on the margins of the brooks. 
On the sides of the pond are varieties of Osmunda regalis, which have 
shed their spores in the interstices of the corderoy pa*h ; the Alpine 
Willows, and the fine big-leaved Saxifrages peltata and Hirculus. 
The next lower beds soon became the home of the Japanese Primula 
and the Himalayan P. rosea and denticulata, which, once planted, seed 
freely after the manner of biennials. The alpine Primula viscosa and 
other water-loving kinds thrive here. 
The lowest beds of all were made to hold the Spiraeas, of which the 
most beautiful are S. Aruncus, S. palmata, the white Spiraea Ulmaria 
plena, and the newer S. astilboides, with its better kind, S. floribunda. 
