TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. —August 20, 1850. 
383 
0. “The back border is not filled with soil, because I 
have no confidence in Vinos so grown.” Will you kindly 
tell us why? Mr. Glondinning, according to report, 
showed very fine Grapes lately planted against the back 
wall of such a houso. Such an oxample is quite in 
unison with our own experience. If I had a choice at 
all, I would prefer the north side to tho south side of 
such a houso for haviug my Vine-border in, moro 
especially if the Vinos were planted and kept some four 
foot apart, as thou the sun’s rays would strike the 
soil on tho north side more powerfully than on the south, 
while the root, from being brought down the rafter, 
would be more inclined to be robust and short-jointed. 
L do not think the matter is of very great consequence, 
but if I had a stronger faith iu the one border than the 
other, it would bo iu the one in which our corre¬ 
spondent has no faith at all; and as we are all working 
for the best, I, for one, shall be glad to know the reasons 
on which that faith rests. Whatever may be said of 
the consistency of sticking fast to opinions, I hope that 
he will never support any practice or principle when 
another has been proved superipr. 
7. Although there ought to be enough of heat from 
the pipes for ordinary purposes, still, there can be no 
question that much of what now goes up the chimney 
would help to warm the house if a flue went along close to 
the back wall, and even returned to the chimney, if that 
is close to the furnace. I would prefer small brick lines 
to earthenware pipes. Were such a house presented 
to me to make the most of for early forcing, as the 
front border is there, I would let it remain; but as the 
heat is defective, I would take a flue through tho centre 
of tho back border, and I would either enclose it in a 
chamber, with holes to let out the heat, or 1 would 
surround it with clinkers, brickbats, &c., as open as 
possible, with finer gravelly material on the surface, and 
on that, again, have sand, or tan, or half-spent tree 
leaves, &c., and on that border I would have pots of 
Peaches, Nectarines, Figs, &c.; or I would grow crops 
of French Beans, or even Cucumbers or Melons, or 
Pino Apples if wanted. To secure bottom-moisture, 
water could bo poured among the stones without 
touching the flue. Any or all of these things could be 
grown in such a house, provided the Vines are, at the 
least, four feet apart; they would be better to be five 
or six when such under growth crops are expected to 
do well. Where there is skill aud enthusiasm, it is 
amazing whnt can be got out of such a single house. As 
a general rule, however, the proprietor, in such circum¬ 
stances, must be satisfied with quantity and mediocrity, 
instead of first-rate excellence as to quality. .From 
shelves suspended from the roof good Strawberries can 
be obtained until the leaves of the Vines get half their 
full size. After that the fruit will swell, but will have 
little flavour; aud fresh plants set in, however well 
prepared previously, will almost be certain to go blind, 
and refuse to set, because the heat is too powerful, 
and the shade too dense. Some time ago, a gentleman, 
who owned he got fine Strawberries in April, complained 
he could get none in the beginning of May, and on 
the principle, almost universally acted upon, that 
gardeners, with their experience, their ideas, their 
patience, their time, especially when they expect to get 
a pair of slippers on and be cozy, are entirely the 
property of the public, to be quizzed and questioned, 
turned as much as possible inside out, and mado avail¬ 
able in every possible way, such as no other professionals, 
that I am aware of, would submit to, without hinting to 
their customers something about the conditions. This 
gentleman was extremely anxious to find out the cause 
of failure, when the simply noticing the roof of his glass 
house, so densely packed with foliage as to make the 
iusido a shady retreat,' would have at once told him that, 
with a sufficiency of hot piping and moisture, he might 
as well have filled with Strawberry plants bis opaque- 
roofed stable, and expected fine fruit from them. 
It. Fish. 
ORCHIDS BEARING COOL TREATMENT. 
{Continued from Vol. XV., page 293.) 
Leptotes bicolor. —Plants from hot climates may or 
may not be, comparatively speaking, hardy. Who that 
has thought about the matter at all does not recollect 
some plant or other that was carefully cultivated in the 
stove, but, subsequently, proved to be at least hardy 
enough to boar the greenhouse temperature ? I am old 
enough to remember the Aucuba Japonioa treated as a 
greenhouse plant, and have heard my father say, when 
he was young, it was treated as a stove plant; but how 
stands the case now? This very Aucuba is hardier than 
the common or Portugal Laurel; in fact, I never knew 
it injured by frost, however severe. So I have no doubt 
there are many plants with much hardier constitutions 
than we are aware of. Hence it is advisable, whenever 
any plant becomes old, scrubby, or unsightly, instead 
of casting it to the rubbish-heap, to plant it out in 
a poor, stony soil, iu an elevated yet sheltered situa¬ 
tion, in order to prove what powers it possesses of 
resisting cold. So in Orchid culture it is a matter of 
some importance to ascertain the degrees of cold any 
species will bear without injury. It was by a trial of 
this kind that it was discovered that the pretty dwarf 
Orchid Leptotes bicolor is one that will not only 
bear, but actually thrives best with a cool treatment. 
Terrestrial Orchids that are deciduous may be expected, 
when in a dormant state without leaves, with their 
pseudo-bulbs underground, to live in a low temperature 
if kept above the freezing point. Now, however are we 
to account for a succulent, fleshy-leaved Orchid, as this 
Leptotes is, thriving better in a greenhouse than in a 
stove, though it is a native of Brazil, where the tempera¬ 
ture is frequently as high as 120'-'’ ? Yet this is an un¬ 
doubted fact, as any one may have an ocular demonstra¬ 
tion of if they will visit the Victoria Nursery at Ux¬ 
bridge, and ask to see the specimen of it there. It is a 
very pretty-growing plant, with round pseudo-bulbs, 
channelled on the upper or leaf part. The flowers 
spring from the lowest part of this channel, and, as the 
specific name imports, are two-coloured. The sepals 
aud petals are of a clear waxy white, whilst the lip or 
labellum is of a pleasing rose colour. The pseudo-bulbs 
grow close together in a cluster, and the thick, fleshy, 
channelled leaves on the top lean a little backward. 
Each bulb has only one leaf, so that it forms a neat, 
handsome plant. It is best cultivated iu a basket sus¬ 
pended from the roof amongst fibry peat, pieces of char¬ 
coal, and broken potsherds. Like all the rest of the 
tribe, it requires a season of growth and a season of 
rest, which a cool house affords it admirably. Tho 
growth is to be effected in summer, and the rest in 
winter. Water should be given freely when growing, 
and never wholly withheld even when at rest; but in 
that state it should havo no more than is sufficient to 
prevent it from actually shrinking. 
There is a variety named Ulaucopliylla (glaucous¬ 
leaved). The labellum of this is white, and the leaves 
are as if they were powdered over with a white powder; 
they have then the colour which botanists denominate by 
the term glaucous. This species is very rare in cultiva¬ 
tion. I saw once a small plant of it in J. Bateman, Esq’s 
collection at Kuypersley Hall, near Gonglcton; but that, 
I fear, is lost, as many a rare plant has been, by being 
nursed too much. 
Leptotes concolou (one-coloured).—This species is 
from the Organ Mountains in the Brazils, and is very 
like the preceding species, only it is smaller iu all its 
