202 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f March 7, 1889. 
Gardeners’ Social Position. — I hope no young man who has 
entered gardening for a livelihood will be in any way discouraged by 
reading Mr. Bighter’s notes on gardeners’ social position. Although I 
do not mean to criticise seniors, yet I think Mr. Bighter is presenting 
to us the darkest side of the question without a word of encouragement. 
Mr. Maher’s note on the subject is decisive, for he shows plainly that 
a man may be classed as a “ menial,” or serving as a gardener, and 
yet be a gentleman in the highest sense of the word. 
Freesias.—I have known more than one instance of Freesias, being 
almost a failure last year, and a brilliant success this year, although 
receiving the same treatment in both seasons. F. Leitchlini was better 
last year than F. refracta alba. The latter seems to be earlier than the 
former, and more suitable for forcing.— Journeyman. 
I AM very glad to see the suggestion of your correspondent on page 
157 so admirably responded to by “ North Wales.” I have sent you 
these notes hoping they may be of use, should you deem them worthy 
of insertion in your valuab’e paper. I hope the “Evening Notes” 
column may be the means of many exchanges of the results of useful 
experience. 
Iris germanica for Forcing.— Few plants succeed better when 
forced than this handsome plant. We have had a succession of flowers 
from it for the last two months. It deserves much more attention than 
is generally given it where a quantity of bloom is required so early in 
the season. For conservatory decoration it would be difficult to over¬ 
estimate its value. The whole may be lifted and potted at one time, 
standing them in a cold house or pit until required. A night tempera¬ 
ture of 50° to 55° is quite sufficient until the flower spikes appear, when 
they may be subjected to stronger forcing. 
I)RACjena amabilis.— This well-known Dracaena is still one of the 
best for decorative purposes. We obtain strong plants in 24’s in one 
season. Now that stove plants are being overhauled is the time to pro¬ 
cure “ toes,” which may be taken from the base of the plants at potting. 
These should be potted singly in 60’s to secure the best results, and 
plunged in the propagating case, potting them as necessary. Given 
liberal treatment they soon make useful plants. Liquid manure, 
judiciously supplied as they become established, greatly assists the 
colouring of the foliage, without which even good plants are of little 
value.—F. S. G. 
EARLY HORTICULTURAL BUILDINGS. 
Seeing your article, “Notes on Early English Horticulture” in 
Journal of Horticulture, I send you extract, taken from “Monthly 
Magazine ” of 1801, on Horticultural Buildings, hoping that it will meet 
with your approval.—R. J. Measures. 
“The patentee first points out the defects in the present construction 
of these houses owing to which the heat of the sun is not turned to all 
the advantage of which it is capable. In the houses now in use, the 
roof-glasses of hothouses are almost universally laid into the frames, by 
lapping one pane over the other, leaving an open space between each 
pane, through which the air may freely pass and repass, whilst the 
panes in front are closely puttied all round. It is this communication 
with the open air at the upper part of the house that is its chief defect, 
for, as the effect of heat upon any quantity of air (and indeed on fluids 
in general) is to make the mass of air thus heated to rise in a body to 
the upper part of the vessel in which the air is contained ; so it is in a 
hothouse. As soon as the sun’s rays penetrate through the glasses 
the air within the house becomes heated, and rising to the top of the 
house passes out into the open air, and continues to do so for several 
hours, before the lower part of the house is sensibly warmed. Thus the 
effect of the morning sun is lost for some hours, and in the evening, 
when the warm air within the house begins to cool and to contract in 
bulk, the cold air from without finds its way through the top glasses 
and cools the house in the most expeditious manner possible. 
“.To remedy these inconveniences Dr. Anderson proposes the following 
construction for houses to force Vines, or such as require a similar tem¬ 
perature. The house is to be made of the usual dimensions, but with a 
glass roof entirely flat; and, as it never requires to be opened, all the 
seams and junctures, must be closely pasted up. Over this flat roof 
another sloping roof is to be thrown, which last also is better made of 
glass, but may be built of slate. A chamber in the form of a common 
garret is thus made above the hothouse, which is to serve as a reservoir 
for the heated air. The upper chamber has communication with the 
open air only at its lower part—that is, just over the roof of the lower 
house. It communicates with the lower house by a pipe which passes 
through the glass roof of this house, and is prolonged nearly to the 
ground below and to the top of the upper chamber above. By this 
construction as soon as the morning sun begins to warm the air 
of the lower house it rises to the roof, and not finding any opening 
there it accumulates in that part, whilst the cool air is forced through 
the pipe into the upper chamber. Thus the stratum of warmer air is 
constantly increasing downwards from the roof till the whole of the 
lower house is warmed. After this the air ascends warm through the 
communicating pipe into the upper chamber, or reservoir for heated 
air ; and here, too, as below, it ascends to the top of the ceiling, forcing 
out the cooler air contained in the upper chamber, which passes away 
through the openings which are left above the floor of this chamber 
or the roof of the lower room. 
“ During the whole of this heating process the Vines which are trained 
all along under the glass roof of the lower chamber are immersed in 
warm air on every side. In the evening, when the sun is ofE, the warm 
air contracts by cooling, and the outer air rushes in through the only 
communication which the house has without—that is, through the 
openings just over the glass roof into the upper chamber. As this outer 
cold air is heavier than any part of the air within either chamber, it 
can only gradually enter in proportion as the inner air recedes, and the 
current through the chambers is exactly reversed, whilst the lower 
chamber receives all the store of heated air from the feservoir before 
the cooler air can reach it, and the roof of the lower room, on which 
the Vines are trained, must be the last place m the whole building that 
can be cooled. 
“Thepatentee is fully of opinion that in moderately fine weather the 
warmth of a few hours of sun would be felt in the part on which the 
Grapes are trained, at least till the return of the next day’s sun, and 
thus a permanent heat might be kept up without any artificial heat 
whatever from fuel sufficient to ripen Grapes always with certainty, and 
much earlier than in the open air. Dr. Anderson likewise suggests that 
the upper house might serve as a hothouse of inferior rank, and parti¬ 
cularly well for a greenhouse or conservatory. 
“ We apprehend that this ingenious application of a few well known 
principles will merit the attention of all gardeners, and there appears to 
be no fallacy in the principles of this construction, allowing, perhaps, 
for accidental irregularities in the transmission of heat, which cannot 
always be contrived to follow exactly the track here assigned to it, 
owing to circumstances which will immediately strike everyone 
acquainted with the subject.” 
LIGHTING AND VENTILATION. 
The Wenham Lamp. 
Lighting by electricity was referred to last week, and attention is 
now directed to a new form of gas lamp that we have had in use for a 
FIG. 30.—THE WENHAM PATENT VENTILATING LAMP. 
Description of Section—A is an iron ceiling box to fix between the joists. B is the exit 
pipe or chimney ot lamp delivering the proiuets or combustion into the iron box A. 
D is gas supply. C is a flue pipe made of sheet iron leading into a chimney or vertical 
shift. E is a packing of non-conducting material to prevent any radiation of heat 
from the pipe or box (silicate cotton answers the purpose well, and is easily applied]. 
considerable time, and with satisfactory results. Amongst the advan¬ 
tages of electric lighting stand first the intensity or brilliancy of its 
illuminating power, and secondly the absence of the residuum, or 
vitiated atmosphere resulting from an imperfect combustion of gas, 
which renders inhabited places so obnoxious from a hygienic point of 
view. But this light is only at the command of the few. 
The light procured by burning gas in the lamp under notice is of. 
great intensity. The gas appears to undergo complete combustion, and 
not only is the air of the room no longer vitiated, but this lamp becomes 
on the contrary the means of ventilating the place. 
These lamps are made upon the “ regenerative principle,” and were 
the subject of a lengthy paper, read before the Society of British 
Architects by Vivian B. Lewes, Esq., Professor of Chemistry at the 
Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Prof. Lewes dealt with the Wenham 
Company’s lamps on this system, which, apart from effecting a great 
saving in the consumption of gas, are admirably adapted for lighting and 
ventilating dwellings and all kinds of buildings, including conserva¬ 
tories. The products from ordinary gas burners are most injurious to 
plants, but no noxious fumes can enter a house where these new lamps 
are properly fixed. We are told they are used, amongst other places, at 
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales’s conservatories at Sandringham. These 
