258 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
has recently been started for the purpose of 
bringing into practical operation Warriner’s 
regulating furnace bars, which are intended 
to economise fuel, to prevent the destruction 
of fire-bars, and to consume smoke. These 
objects are effected by admitting only such an 
amount of atmospheric air as the nature of the 
fire requires, and by distributing the air ad¬ 
mitted equally over the whole grate surface. 
This is done by means of hollow bars, through 
which all the air required for combustion 
passes to the fire, the rest of the furnace being 
made air-tight, and the admission of air to the 
bars being controlled by a valve. The atmo¬ 
spheric air continually passing through the 
bars tends to keep them cool, and replaces the 
oxygen burned out of them, thus preventing 
their being destroyed so rapidly. 
New Gloxinias. —Some extraordinary seed¬ 
ling Gloxinias, as good as they are entirely 
new in style, have appeared at the Paris 
Exhibition during the season. They have 
sprung from a seedling of M. Yallerand’s, 
spotted in a way that reminds one of the 
Achimenes called Ambroise Yerschaffelt, and 
from this many exquisite varieties have 
sprung. No choice varieties of Foxglove or 
Calceolaria, bear such handsome and delicate 
spotting, while the improvement in form is 
equally remarkable, the limb of some erect 
varieties spreading out flat and waxy till the 
flower looks like a Dipladenia. This is par¬ 
ticularly the case with varieties having a 
stain of rose at the base of each limb segment, 
and which afterwards spreads out into a rosy 
suffusion towards the margin. Some varieties 
have the throat spotted; but generally the 
throat is pure white, and the limb regularly 
spotted with rose or lilac; while a few are 
of a pure waxy white, and with a simple stain 
of rose, or purple, or blue appearing at the 
base of each segment of the limb. When 
they get into commerce it may be expected that 
an increased stimulus will be given to the 
culture of the Gloxinia. 
Sedum spectabile. —This plant, often called 
S. Fabaria in gardens, is one of the finest 
autumn-flowering plants introduced of late 
years, being fine in flower and handsome in 
foliage, as well as distinct and perfectly hardy. 
It may beusedas a greenhouse or conservatory 
pot plant, as a rock plant, or as a first-class 
border plant. When specimens of it are fully 
exposed to the sun and air, and well esta¬ 
blished, which they become in a year or so, 
it is particularly fine, and flowers till the 
season is just over, keeping company with 
the Tritomas. It begins to push up its fat 
glaucous shoots in the very dawn of spring, 
and continues in a perfectly presentable 
condition all through the early summer. 
Hybrid Pinks.— Some useful forcing va¬ 
rieties have been raised at Bury St. Edmunds, 
notably Lord Lyon, which was exhibited last 
summer by Mr. Clai’ke, and much admired. 
One of the first was Claude, a very free- 
blooming variety, of a pleasing rose colour. 
The pedigree of Claude gives Anna Boleyn 
as the seed parent, and a laced show Pink as 
the pollen parent. From this variety was 
raised Garibaldi, a much darker shade of 
colour than Claude, being of a crimson rose; 
but this flower, though blooming freely, does 
not force so well as others. From Garibaldi 
came Lord Lyon, or Clarke’s Rose Pink, an 
intermediate shade of colour between Claude 
and Garibaldi, but having a strong infusion 
of rose in the colour, the petals being also 
handsomely spotted with dark at the base. 
Echeveria metallica.— Amongst Mr. Gib¬ 
son’s arrangements in the subtropical garden 
at Battersea, there has been this season a re¬ 
markable group, which was quite startling in 
its quaintness as well as happy in its effect. 
It may be described thus :—in the centre of 
a circular raised bed of moderate diameter, 
5 or 6 fee.t perhaps, stood a large plant of 
Echeveria metallica, and six smaller ones were 
placed round about it nearer the margin. 
Clpse to the central plant, nicely fitting in be¬ 
neath its leaves, was a ring of single-stemmed 
plants of Sempervivum arboreum, other plants 
of which again alternated with the smaller 
Echeverias, but stood a little nearer the 
circumference. These quaint-looking fleshy 
forms of vegetation, the green of the Semper¬ 
vivum contrasting strongly with the glaucous 
coppery-tinted metallic hue of the Echeveria, 
stood up on little elevations in prominent 
relief, and the surface of the bed was hollowed 
out between them, and entirely clothed with 
the minute close-growing Sedum glaucum. 
The whole was neatly margined with a broad 
line of Sempervivum montanum, and outside 
that with one composed of one ot the small, 
tufted-growing, encrusted Saxifrages. The 
bed thus filled was most original in its concep¬ 
tion, most perfect in design and execution, 
wanting altogether the elegance we are so 
apt to demand in flower-garden groups, and 
yet most fascinating from its entire novelty 
of character and its striking associations of 
form and colour. It was the crowning effort 
of 1867 at Battersea. 
Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums. —Mr. Bull has 
succeeded in raising from seed a very interest¬ 
ing set of these plants, some of which will be 
acquisitions. The flowers vary in tint from 
blush white through many shades to deep 
bright rosy lilac, and are sometimes marked 
with a bar or flame only along the base of 
the veins of the upper petals, sometimes with 
a bright spot in addition. One in particular, 
the colour of which is a kind of peach blos¬ 
som hue, with a bright rose spot on the upper 
petals, and having the base of the lower 
petals white, is particularly attractive. We 
have here an indication that the Ivy-leaved 
section is likely to become an extensive one; 
a matter of congratulation, seeing that the 
plants are useful in many ways for decorative 
gardening. 
