THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— July 22, 1856. 
‘296 
GASTRONE'MA SANGLTNEUM. 
(Blood-eed Gasteonema.) 
This green-ho-use bulb belongs to the Natural Order Anm- 
ri/!lids (Anoaryllidacete), and to Alexandria Monogynia of the 
Linntean system. 
A native of Caffraria; presented to the Society hy Messrs. 
Backhouse, nurserymen, York, in 1815. 
A hollow glaucous stem, four or five inches high, supports 
a single sessile flower of its own length, surrounded at the 
base by a pair of long, narrow spathes. The tube is slender 
and greenish, and expands into-a deep rose obconical throat, 
having six crimson lines running from the sinuses of the 
limb on the outside, and on the inside as many white bands, 
each with a crimson streak along the middle. The limb is 
very deep rose-colour, with six equal-spreading, oblong, 
whole-coloured segments. The leaves are nearly as tall as 
the flower, dark green, in a very small degree glaucous, and 
gradually widen towards the end, which is blunt. 
A greenhouse bulb, which should be potted in rich sandy 
loam, and treated like Habranthus and similar bulbs, it is 
increased by offsets. 
It is very handsome, deserving general cultivation even in 
the most select collections. 
ON FORCING SEA-KALE AND RHUBARB, 
BLANCHING WINTER SALADS, AND PRO¬ 
TECTING LATE VEGETABLES. By .Tames 
Duncan, C.M.H.S., Gardener to Joseph Martiueau, 
Esq., F.H.S., Basing Park, near Alton. 
The cumbersome and unsightly mode hy which Sea-kale 
and Rhubarb are usually produced, viz., under masses of fer¬ 
menting material in the open ground, has long appeared to 
me an anomaly in gardening, which not only involves a very 
serious expense in the production of these articles, but, from 
tlie changeable nature of our atmosphere during the winter 
months, the produce, itself is rendered very uncertain! more 
' especially during periods of continued wet or stormy weather. 
! It also often occurs that over-beating is a source of much 
rhischief, considerably damaging the leaves, and not un- 
frequently destroying them altogether. Many years since, 
! whilst under-gardener in a large establishment, at my sug- 
| gestion, a close dark shed at the back of a fruiting Pine- 
| stove, and which derived a borrowed heat from that structure, 
was appropriated to the purpose of forcing Sea-kale and 
I blanching winter salads, and it answered the purpose tole- 
! rably well, although in severe weather an excess of heat was 
| sometimes unavoidable, and of a more drying nature than 
| was favourable to a healthy development of the leaves of 
! those esculents. The roots were removed from the open 
j ground and planted in a bed of mould some eight or nine 
i inches in thickness on the floor of the shed, and no further 
care was required than occasionally to sprinkle the walls and 
j floor of the building, so as in some -measure to counteract 
; the drying nature of the heat proceeding through the wall of 
: the Pine-stove. Since then I have resorted to many ex- 
i pedients in the production of Sea-kale and Rhubarb, such as 
i forcing in dark frames, on the floors of Vineries and the 
1 Mushroom-house, and occasionally potting the roots and 
forcing them in the Tine-stove—preferring, in short, almost 
any mode of cultivation to the antiquated one of forcing 
with pots and manure in the open ground during the depth 
of winter, the only conditions necessary in these operations 
being to secure a sufficiency of heat and complete dark¬ 
ness, so as at once to insure a vigorous growth, perfectly 
blanched. 
The system, however, which R have practised here for a 
series of years is at once so economical and well suited for 
j the purposes alike of forcing Rhubarb and Sea-kale, or the 
blanching of Endive or other salads, as at once to do away 
! with (at least in my case) all other plans or expedients by 
which these vegetables had hitherto been produced. 
In a quadruple range of forcing-pits (of which the 
. annexed section of a part of them will convey an accurate 
idea) the pits are situated two feet apart from each other, 
and were formerly heated hy dung linings in the intervening 
spaces, which were closely covered over with wooden 
j shutters: the latter rested on cast-iron bearers, and formed 
1 at once a walk between the pits and a means of preventing 
the escape of heat from the dung underneath; they also 
: kept it from being chilled by the action of the weather. 
But as this system has been given up for the more modern 
and ready one of applying tlie heat in chambers underneath 
the beds, these lining-pit's have been rendered useless for 
their original purpose, and I have since then applied them 
very successfully to the forcing of winter vegetables. They 
do not require any special heating, for a sufficiency of 
warmth is generated through the walls of the adjacent 
chambers. A covering of straw during periods of severe 
frosts is added; but this is more a precautionary measure 
than one of necessity. These pits are four and a half feet 
in depth. In the bottom of them a layer of brushwood 
is placed, so as to enable the heat to penetrate more readily 
under the roots, and to allow any excess of moisture to drain 
off effectually ; the roots are then removed from the open 
J ground with the usual care, and planted on a bed of mould 
