October 31.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
63 
so as to leave less for the frost to act upon. Then as to 
covering to ward off danger, the grand point to be 
j attended to hinges on the same point or principle— 
| dryness; dry covers, dry borders, dry plants, dry every- 
I thing about and around half-hardy things to he protected 
i from frost, otherwise the remedy may cause more harm 
than the weather; but in all this dryness let us not lose 
sight of the poor gardener: dry flannels, dry stockings, 
and above all, dry soles of gutta percha, and dry com¬ 
forters about the throat, will go as far against lumbago, 
rheumatism, colds, and sore throats, as all this dry 
covering will do against frosts. Young healthy people 
are sadly careless about these things, but the days are 
fast coming, as I can tell from sore experience, that will 
convince the hardiest of our race of the folly of not 
attending to our personal comforts as much as lies in our 
power while we are yet young and full of spirits ; add to 
this a desire to please and to seem to be at ease, and to 
try to be so with ourselves, and the whole will go along 
way to ward off the frosts incident to our positions, 
whatever they may be. 
But here, just as I was going to write a lecture on 
—I forget what,—a new dodge came across my mind, 
and I must out with it, else ten to one I shall forget 
all about it before my next letter ; indeed, my worthy 
employer remarked at the time I got the story—“We 
| shall have all this in The Cottage Gardener by 
I and bye.” A gentleman—a member of the family 
whom I have had the pleasure to serve for the last 
many years, and who, by his own industry, has risen to 
the post of Capt. R.E.—came down the other day “ to 
see the gardener,” after an absence from our common 
country for some years; the plough and the pruning- 
knife were soon forgotten, and we dived at once into 
foreign vegetation, foreign gardening, and all that sort of 
thing; and I have often thought that there is no class 
more instructive to talk with than those who have 
travelled in foreign parts—if their heads were at all put 
| on the right way. The best that one can learn from home 
J travellers is, that a new crust may be put on an old pie 
| safe enough, and appear all the better at table, but 
j still you cannot get rid of the idea of the old dish over 
again. Well, after travelling from pole to pole we came 
back to old England again, and he went down to Scot- 
! laud and back agaiu faster than I can write it; there and 
then he saw a plan of making rose-trees in six weeks 
\ from the first commencement; and any of us may make 
I a rose-tree now in the same time, and send it to a friend 
hundreds of miles off in full blossom. The 2 )lan is 
! this—any time, or soon after Midsummer, fix on a strong 
; shoot of that season’s growth, and when you find it 
| getting hard near the bottom, put in the knife just 
j under a bud and slit it up an inch or more as you would 
in “ tonguing” a carnation for layering, put in a wedge 
to keep the slit open, and tie a ball of green moss all 
| round it, and the work is done; the “tongue” roots im- 
; mediately into the moss, and by the end of the six weeks 
j the plant is fit to cut off below the moss, and also fit to 
take care of itself at the same time; and if that does not 
j outrun railroads, what will? Now, although 1 had read 
; of all that the Chinese are said to have done by ringing 
: and putting balls of clay round the rings to get stunted 
i trees from,—what Mr. Munro, an old friend, had written 
; in Loudon’s Gardeners' Magazine about driving the 
point of a knife through the centre of a rose shoot, 
wedging it, and then laying it in the ground, and so 
I leaving it till the roots sprang out all round the opening 
! as thick as the mustachios of a gallant hussar,—and also 
what the late Mr. Cunningham, of Edinburgh, had done 
with slits and wedges, to get cuttings to form callosities 
before he took them off',—and all that Mr. Loudon said 
about this when he was editor of the Gardeners Gazette — 
I confess that this way of making rose plants in so short a 
time struck me as a greatand useful novelty;—and if this 
number of The Cottage Gardener should reach the 
worthy gardener who has hit on the plan, I hope he will 
he induced to write a whole article on the subject for 
these pages, if only to save people from writing to in¬ 
quire more about it of D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Heated Greenhouses. —Having glanced at some of 
the modes of managing somewhat hardy greenhouse 
plants, in houses without any means of artificial heat, 
and given a list of those most suitable for this purpose, 
I proceed—in order to gratify the wishes of other in¬ 
quirers—to enumerate a few good things (“not common, 
as geraniums, fuchsias, cinerarias, &c.”), which may be 
successfully grown where artificial heat is at command. 
In order, however, to guard against misconceptions and 
consequent disappointments, I must state, that in the 
case of those friends who are to use as much and no 
more heat than will just exclude frost, they must be 
satisfied with such a list of things as that previously 
given, in addition to their usual bedding-out plants; or, 
at least, the additions must be equally hardy. The 
chief object of fire-heat in their case is merely the saving 
of time and labour involved in covering and uncovering, 
and guarding against the damps and mildew, which are 
apt to seize the plants when covered up for weeks, in 
weather that is not only frosty but dull. With a very 
low temperature at night, provided it be a few degrees 
above the freezing point, such plants will be safe, and 
safe all the more, because there will be no stimulus to 
unhealthy expansion. In cold dull weather, when the 
sun does not raise the temperature sufficiently for several 
days to warrant the admission of air, then, by still 
maintaining the same low temperature at night, a fire 
may be stirred up after breakfast, so as to warrant the 
opening of the ventilators a little about mid-day, which 
will do away with the evils attendant upon a stagnant 
atmosphere, even when the temperature is low. The 
giving of air, even in the worst weather, is of more 
importance in such houses than in cold pits securely 
covered up, because in the latter there is less variation 
of temperature. Hence, during a severe frost, as we 
have already seen, provided the temperature is low, and 
the air dry, such pits may be covered up for weeks, and 
the plants sustain no injury-—nay ! they frequently will 
look all the better for the long rest and nap they have 
received; resembling, in some respects, the verdure of 
your hardy grasses that had been covered several weeks 
with snow, when the snow had disappeared,—that snow 
having fallen before the ground was much crusted with 
frost. But in houses uncovered—from the variations of 
external temperature—from the bursting-out of the sun, 
even for short intervals—from their upright glass in 
front, upon which the rays strike almost perpendicularly 
in winter—a period of complete rest cannot be realised 
within; a stimulus to growth will he given, and as that 
growth, especially in dull weather, deteriorates the atmo¬ 
sphere, a little fresh air becomes necessary. Where, as 
in general is the case, there are no means for heating 
the air before admission, it should always be given in 
cold foggy weather sparingly , and with great caution, 
chiefly at the top of the house ; admitting it at the front 
only for a short time. The lighting of a fire in the fore¬ 
noon, in such circumstances, will cause a rapid circula¬ 
tion, with the admission of even a very little fresh air, 
as may easily be proved by suspending any light sub¬ 
stance, such as down, feathers, &c., in the house; and 
this circulation is the best antidote against mildew in its 
various forms, which often makes such havoc among free- 
growing heaths, &c. Strong fires at night are now, 
