April 29. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 81 
lie was speaking of the management of flowers, that it is 
not the having a vast amount of knowledge that constitutes 
a good gardener, but the doing well to the amount of our 
knowledge. Now I wrote that in large letters, and pasted it 
up in the tool-house, so that 1 am not likely to lose sight of it. 
I had a good many seeds last spring: of some I had 
the names; but then they wanted different treatment, and 
bloomed at different times, without doubt; but I could not 
tell, and to search through the different volumes of The 
Cottage Gardener occupied too much time; and even if 1 
had time to do so, I was not sure it treated of the flower 
that I was in doubt about., and the tallies in the borders 
were getting rather numerous with names not certified. I 
saw I was a very important link deficient in the chain of 
gardening knowledge. 1 said, “What is to be done?” 
“ Why, get The Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary.” 1 did 
so; and I am sure I could not have a book more suitable to 
my wants. I have made rapid strides since 1 have had it, 
for one in my position. I consider that no one pretending 
to gardening should he without it. For instance, a lady 
buys a plant, brings it home, and hands it over to the care 
of her man. He sees the name, or something near it, stuck 
in the pot, and that is all he knows about it; and the result 
is, it gets wrongly treated, and the man tries to strike cut¬ 
tings in the open ground, instead of in sand, under a bell- 
glass. The plant drops its blossoms, and goes out of exist¬ 
ence ; the lady is disappointed ; blows up the nurseryman ; ’ 
and says it is no good to buy plants, and gives it up accord- I 
iugly; whereas, if the lady, or tlio man, had had The Cot¬ 
tage Gardeners’ Dictionary at their elbow, they could, 
the first thing, give it its proper name, and then its proper 
treatment; they would have been gratified with a continued 
bloom the present season, and rewarded with a generation 
of cuttings for the next; the lady would have praised the ! 
man for his care and thoughtfulness, and the nurseryman I 
would have had more orders. 
I see in The Cottage Gardener for April 1st an article 
by Mr. Robson on Fences, more particularly the quickset. \ 
1 have under my own charge nearly two miles of quickset, 
and most of it has been planted within the last ten years, 
and all clipped twice annually. Now, in a good many 
places the quickset had died away, and I was some time 
before I could find out what appeared to mo the cause—not 
until 1 had taken a wider range, and observed the hedges 
on the road side wherever 1 went, and invariably found the 
same effects where the same cause existed, viz., that 
long, rambling brier that bears the blackberries: I do not 
know the proper name. I have, for some time, observed 
ihe grass on the road side where the above brier existed; j 
but I generally attributed it to the effects of the children j 
trampling on the hedge to gather the fruit; but the hedges | 
under my care, being clipped twice in the year, do not ripen 
any fruit, and if they did, they are out of the range of chil¬ 
dren. Now, there are three hedges in this immediate I 
neighbourhood that have never been clipped or cut, and in 
all three of them the brier exists profusely, but is forced out 
into the ditch underneath the thorns, and not run up i 
through them, as in the case of the hedges under my care ; : 
and in the three cases mentioned, the thorn was not the i 
least injured by it. 
I have just thrown out these few observations, thinking 
that perhaps some of your correspondents maybe able to 
tell us why it is that the brier kills the thorn in hedges that 
are clipped, and not injuring those that are not clipped; 
but it being so, the safest way is to pull up all we can, as T 
have hitherto done, at the Midsummer clip, and cutting off 
close to the bank the rest. 
Perhaps you can tell me the name of two very common, 
though very useful flowers at this season of the year. The 
first is the low, tufty, purple flower seen in almost every 
garden, and on every piece of rockwork ; now in full bloom. 
The second is in full bloom now also, and, I should think, 
belonged to the Polyanthus tribe; the leaves are of a dull¬ 
ish-green, with light spots on them; the pips, at first, are a 
reddish-purple, then change to a bluish-purple. I have 
said thus much iu case you should not be able to make out 
the specimens sent. The second gets too large a plant for 
the border in a twelvemonth. I then put them in the 
shrubbery, where they do well; then fill up their place with 
seedlings.—T he Doctor’s Boy. 
(“The Doctor’s Boy’s” plants are, 1. Aubrietia purpu¬ 
rea, a very desirable rock-plant or marginal border-plant. 
2. Ts Pulmonaria angustifolia, or often called “ The Bethle¬ 
hem Cowslip." The brier that is fancied to injure the 
quickset hedge is, of course, Buliiis fruticosws, or some of its 
varieties. Though this plant, after being once or twice 
clipped during the year, does not much injure the well-kept 
quickset hedge, wo would cut it out of such a fence by 
degrees, as it is only a weedy plant to that of the quick, 
and were it allowed to get the upper hand of the quick, 
it would, no doubt, smother it, and kill it in some in¬ 
stances ; but such ought not to be allowed to exist anywhere 
near properly-kept fences. They may be very well in the 
woods, and such like places. No doubt there are many 
banks covered with these brambles that might be clothed 
with good herbage, or other useful produce.) 
HOT-WATER APPARATUS FOU HEATING 
A DWELLING AND GREENHOUSE. 
As requested by yourself and correspondents, I forward 
plans and particulars of my hot-water apparatus, mentioned 
in your number of the 12th of February. 
With respect to the consumption of fuel, on the 7th of 
December last I purchased half-a ton of Welsh (Anthracite) 
coals, costing 18s.; and eighteen bushels of gas coke, cost¬ 
ing !)s.; carting, 2s.; together, XT !)s. This lasted (the tire 
being almost constantly alight, both day and night) until 
the 19th of February, being rather less than 3s. per week. 
The Welsh coals and coke are broken, and burnt mixed 
together, which I find best, and prevents the formation of 
clinkers, so that the furnace only requires to be cleared out 
about once a week. 1 am now keeping the inner greenhouse 
warmer than the other, to bring the Grape-vines forward, 
and at seven o'clock, on the 21th of February, the temperature 
of the several places were—Dining-room (before the ordinary 
fire was lighted), 55°; hall, 52"; store-room, 47°; library, 
49° ; greenhouse, 41°; tank end ditto, 47°; forcing case, 63° ; 
boiler basement, 00°. 
In the autumn I took up a considerable quantity of Tom 
Thumb arid other Scarlet Geraniums, and, though contrary 
to Mr. D. Beaton’s plan, cut them down close, and also 
Scarlet Salvias (Fulgcns), packing them close in a border 
under the forcing. They throw out numerous young 
shoots. I potted them, and they did well, their place 
being supplied by Rhubarb roots. The boiler basement 
is also well calculated for forciug these and other roots. 
1 havo now in blossom Camellias, Azaleas, Lilies of the 
Valley, Roses, Primulas, Deutzia gracilis, Cytisus, Hya¬ 
cinths, Narcissus, etc.; and in the forcing-case I am bring¬ 
ing on Cucumber-plants, with some of the more tender 
Ferns.— F. Copland, Bellejield, Chelmsford. 
explanation of plan. —Fig. 4. 
The water-pipes from the boiler, e, to the greenhouse, 
are laid with a slight ascent, and are laid about two feet 
below the level of the water in the tanks, b and h, which 
have loose covers. There are six ventilators in the floor, as 
marked a; a flat air-pipe, also, leads from the boiler-case, 
e, communicating with the ventilators, a, in the store-room 
and library; but, for the sake of simplification, this is not 
shown in the Plan, nor an external casing to the smoke flue, 
to collect the hot air therefrom, connected with the same 
ventilators. Tbe secondary inner forcing-case, ii, is floored, 
over tbe tank, with loose inch boards, on which the pots 
stand. The smaller pipes are connected by solid galvanized 
India-rubber tubing, tied on, and are quite water-tight. 
Stop cocks are placed at r and s, so that those portions may 
be shut off at pleasure. There is also a stop-cock in the 
flow-pipe at t, to cut off the circulation in the inner green¬ 
house (in which Grapes are grown), if desired, and also 
another stop cock at v, to stop the circulation in the other 
end of the greenhouse: by this arrangement either part 
may be used separately. There is likewise a connection 
between the flow-and-return pipes at w, that, when the heat 
is merely required for the dwelling-house, the water circu¬ 
lates between that point and the boiler without going round 
