November 10. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
109 
pipe, liad there been no red lead used to confine the thin 
stratum of air, there would have been still less heat conducted, 
and, consequently, less evaporation, because the confined air 
gradually became heated, while, if it had been free to circu¬ 
late, it would have been continually changing, the warm air 
ascending, and being replaced by colder. It is quite possi¬ 
ble to make both air and water, so to speak, red hot. _ I 
have seen a liot-water two-inch pipe, hundreds of feet dis¬ 
tant from the furnace, burn a hole in a bale of goods 
allowed to rest on it for a minute or two; and some of your 
| readers may have witnessed a piece of lead melted, or wood 
j charred, by a jet of air from the hot blast-pipe in an iron- 
! foundry, one of the most useful discoveries ot late years. 
| On the other hand, in the case of a double-glazed frame, 
unless the interstratum of air is confined, the double 
glazing will answer no purpose, because the air, by con¬ 
tinually changing, would carry off heat along with it, much 
the same as if there were only one glazing, and this would j 
; be the case whether it communicated with the_ outside or ' 
inside of the frame. In cases, therefore, where it is wished j 
to prevent the communication of heat from one object to ; 
1 another, as when a pot or tub stands on a flue in the floor 
of a greenhouse, let it be raised on supports an inch or two, ; 
but do not confine the air between the bottom of the pot 
! and the flue; but in cases where the radiation of heat is to 
- be avoided, by all means let the interstratum of air be con¬ 
fined. Again, in ventilating a greenhouse by one chimney 
in the roof, without admitting air below, there will be com¬ 
paratively little change of atmosphere in the house; hut let 
j a vertical diaphragm he introduced into the chimney, 
dividing it into two semicircular tubes, instantaneously a 
, column of heated air will rush up one side, and of cold 
i down the other, so that a thermometer placed on each side | 
; of the division, on a frosty night, will show a difference of 
perhaps 30° of temperature. Now it ought to he remem- 
j bered, that the cold air will fall to the floor of the house 
iu a stream, almost like so much water, the colder it is the 
j more directly and compactly it will descend, and then woe 
i to the unfortunate exotic standing below. The above 
I explains the frequent drafts of cold air in a heated hail, 
j even where all admission to air from the outside is carefully 
i prevented, some unfortunate old gentleman's bald pate 
meets with the same fate as the greenhouse exotic.—W.D.A. 
WATSONIAS. 
Being desirous of distributing to my patrons and friends 
bulbous roots correctly named, and answering to some 
arranged and definite description, I .am sorry to say I am 
at a loss to know how to do so, for, to my great annoyance, 
I do not find two writers on the subject to agree in describ¬ 
ing them. You very generously put forward, iu your con¬ 
tinuation of the list of bulbs published in the September 
number, a description of the varieties of Walsonia, which 
does not in any way tally with the varieties cultivated under 
| the same names by me. I, therefore, forward you the 
j enclosed list of them, which, after careful examination of 
the flowers, and comparison with the drawings and descrip¬ 
tions published, I have adopted, under the impression it is 
| correct, but should be most happy to be corrected in any 
errors I may have made. 
Walsonia hrevifolia .—So named from the short, stiff habit ! 
of the foliage, the leaves being seldom more than a foot I 
long. The flower-spikes are two feet and over, and the j 
colour of the flowers of a dun-red. 
Watsonia fuhjida or splcndcns {Antholiza fulyida of some), j 
j —This is a really beautiful plant, the flower-spikes averag- j 
| mg from 3 ft. to Oft. in height, and branching; theflowers of 
a bright orange-scarlet. I find it thrives all the better for 
not being transplanted too often, the newly transplanted 
i roots seldom acquiring sufficient strength to throw up good 
flower-spikes the first season. It is an ever-growing plant, 
I forming young shoots at all seasons of the year. 
Walsonia humilis .—The variety I have cultivated under 
this name was very similar to hrevifolia, as was also a 
variety named Alctroides, neither of which do I consider 
: worthy of cultivation, but for variety’s sake. 
Walsonia manjinala.—l cannot discover any difference 
between this and Meriana, excepting the strength of the 
foliage, which is sometimes margined with brown. 
Walsonia Meriana is of a very strong habit, and seems 
to care hut little for ill usage; flowering undermost dis¬ 
advantageous circumstances; the colour of the bloom is a 
dull brick-red. It is the commonest of all the varieties, and 
increases very freely. 
Watsonia pyramidalis, or spicata. —This is a very pretty 
variety; the flower-spikes from 3 ft. to I ft. high, perfectly 
erect, with the lateral branches adhering closely to the 
main spike; the flowers are smaller than those of other 
varieties, hut the deficiency in size is made up by their 
numbers, the length of bloom often exceeding two feet; the 
flowers are of a pale rosy-lilac. 
Walsonia rosea, or rosea alba. —The flowers of this 
variety are larger in size and more beautiful in colour than 
those of any of the other varieties ; the spikes of bloom are 
not quite so strong as those of fuhjida, but the flowers are 
more expanded, and of a most beautiful pale rosy-purple 
colour. I have sometimes seen the three under petals 
marked with white; hut it seems to me to be a sport, as it 
is not general. 
I have also obtained varieties under the names of coccinea 
and purpurea, hut have not yet bloomed them. I fear, how¬ 
ever, I shall find, from what I have seen of the roots and 
the growth of them, that their plausible names have been 
too great a recommendation for them to me. 
I find all the varieties to thrive well in an open, rich, 
sandy loam, and the beds cannot he better prepared than 
according to your directions given in a late number of 
this publication—that is, by digging the rotted manure used 
ten or twelve inches under the surface, which I find to he a 
good standing rule in the cultivation of Cape bulbs gene- 
I rally, and for the same reason as you so generously inform 
your readers—that is, that they do not require the nourisli- 
| ment the manure affords them until the swelling of the 
j bulbs takes place in the latter stages of their growth. They 
require to he planted three or four inches deep, on raised 
| beds; and I generally allow the beds to remain two or three 
j years undisturbed, finding them to he perfectly hardy, and 
the roots to come out finer through it when taken up. I 
plant from August to October, depending on circumstances, 
never keeping the roots longer out of the ground than I 
am obliged to. 
I am very anxious that the cultivation of these beautiful 
tribes of bulbous-rooted plants should be more generally 
i understood. We grow them to great advantage in these 
1 islands, where the moisture is very great during the au¬ 
tumnal and winter months, with occasional frosts in early 
spring. The moisture I consider to be almost as detri- 
I mental to their growth as moderate frost, inasmuch as the 
1 constant rain during the winter months keeps the ground 
| in such a soddened state, that, unless the ground was care- 
] fully drained, there would be no counteracting the influences 
of the lightest frosts ; as it is, the foliage of the more tender 
! genera, when excited to early growth, is often cut down 
! close to the ground, which disfigures the plant, hut does 
| not affect the blooming much. 
I think, with care, they might be cultivated in most gardens 
in England and Ireland, situated in dry, healthy localities ; 
and their pretty and varied styles of growth, connected with 
the beautiful colours of their flowers, should he unanswer¬ 
able arguments in their favour.— Charles B. Saunders, 
Ctesarcan Nursery , Jersey. 
GATES IN POULTRY. 
Pray allow me a small space in the correspondents’ corner 
of The Cottage Gardener for a word of explanation ; as I 
fear that my remarks respecting Gapes may he misconstrued. 
While many persons have sought for worms by the tur¬ 
pentined feather, without finding them, though the birds 
were killed by the operation (and no wonder, when the 
disease, in many cases, was acute inflammation), and others, 
I doubt not, have mistaken shreds of the recently formed 
false membrane for worms, yet I feel it would be discourteous 
to a zealous investigator, like Mr. Tegetmeier, to doubt that 
he has really dislodged worms from the larynx, or the 
