THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— September 10, 1856. 487 
returns, so that the first division may he heated inde¬ 
pendently of the other; and, at the point just before the 
stop cock, it will be advisable to insert air-pipes. The 
smallest will do, say one quarter of an inch in diameter, 
and standing with its end open a few inches above the 
pipe. It strikes us that, independently of the small pipes, 
which are smaller than we like, there is something wrong 
in that position as respects the boiler, which the foregoing 
observations may correct. The distance is no great affair, 
only the return-pipes will be getting cold before they enter 
tne boiler. We should like you to give the whole a fair 
trial, alter what little benefit you may glean from these 
remarks, before making expensive alterations. If you can 
iieat the boiler and not heat the pipes, there is something 
wrong in their relative positions. If you can make the pipes 
hot easily, and yet these do not sufficiently heat your house, 
then you must have more of them, or substitute four three- 
inch pipes in their stead. But try it fairly first, and do not 
part with the idea of heating from your common fire if it 
will at all auswer, as there is economy in the idea ; and even 
at times, when not very cold, a little heat in the house from 
such a boiler will keep the plants healthier, by enabling you 
to give more air, when the expense of the fuel would 
prevent you lighting a fire on purpose. In such a case as 
yours we recommended two pieces of iron, one to go in front 
of the boiler, fitting into the grate, and standing up six or 
eight inches from the boiler; a similar piece was laid across, 
resting on this upright piece and the top of the boiler; and 
this, at night, confined the fuel round the boiler, something 
similar to a furnace. Before the plates were made, our 
friend told us he used two old shovels for the purpose. 
We shall be anxious to know that your boiler from the 
house fire lias succeeded.] 
BRILLANT DE VAISE VERBENA.—MEYENIA 
ERECTA. 
“I have Verbena ‘Brillant de Vaise,’ not an orange 
scarlet with white eye, as Veteran Donald describes it in 
your No. of 12th August, 1856, but of a brilliant crimson, 
a perfect gem in its way. I got my plant from France, and 
I want to know whether I have it. under a wrong name, or 
whether I). B. was wrong in his description of it; so please 
let me hear. Toll him, also, that he is quite out of his 
depth in his strictures upon its name. Brilliant de Vase 
could not be French at any price, whilst Brillant de Vaise 
may be all right, from the name of the place where it was 
probably raised. 
" Please give us a stave on Meyenia erecta; it is the 
| best importation that has appeared this long while. If you 
| don’t, I must; that's all. 1 should feel much obliged if 
I you could get a few good articles in your journal on 
‘Aquaria;’ and, en attendant, you would confer a special 
favour on me if you would find out whether, in manufac¬ 
turing an aquarium at home, I may employ timber instead 
| of slate for bottom and ends. One of the most interesting 
I features of your journal were the accounts of trips to, and 
, reviews of gardens, accompanied by sketches. Would you 
! like some from this part of Her Majesty’s dominions ?— 
Jtaucus.” 
[We forwarded the above to Mr. Beaton, and he replies 
thus :—“ In the first place, Italicus got a wrong Verbena 
from France ; in the second place, lie is wrong in supposing 
that I did not know orange-scarlet from brilliant crimson ; in 
the third place, he is wrong in saying I am out of my depth 
about the name of the plant; and, in the fifth place, he is 
right in saying Brilliant de J'ase is not true French, but no 
one said it was. The name of the place he writes from, 
B.allymahon, is not true Irish—what of that? Dublin is not 
true Irish, nor a translation of its true Irish name; and the 
name of every third ‘ place ’ in Ireland is no more than a 
mongrel corruption of a once purer language than either 
French or English. Dog-Latin is not a true language, nor 
is it literally translated when it is true in nine cases out of 
ten, and in adding to it we are not required to give the ’ 
equivalents from the originals which we compound or 
translate; but to do just as they did with Ballymahon, 
Balmoral, Dublin, Duuedin, and all such mongrels as 
Benlomond, Benevis, and Benmuelidine, which Moore, | 
1 Byron, and Scott accepted as true ‘at any price.’” 
Of Meyenia erecta we have given a very full account twice, 1 
and there is nothing yet to add to our account except that a 
friend thinks it will make qn excellent plant on a mixed 
border during the summer, and that he put out one this 
season to try. If you have any further information about it 
we shall be obliged by its communication, as we shall 
also with garden gossip from your part of IJer Majesty’s 
dominions.] 
The following from the Verbena in question is a difficult 
appeal for Mr. Beaton to answer:— 
“ Brii.lant de Vaise versus Brilliant de Vase. 
“Mr. Beaton, in your last month’s number, page 846, has 
made a little slip of the pen in the first of his ‘ whole 
chapter of corrections.’ He has taken the wrong ‘ i’ out 
of my name. He couldn’t mean to say that 'there is not 
such a word as Vaise in the French language.' He surely * 
meant to say that there is not such a word as ‘ brilliant.’ j 
If so, he is quite right. ‘Vaise’ is French. ‘Brilliant’ is 
English. ‘Vaise’ is the name of a town, or rather, a 1 
suburb of Lyons. ‘Vase’ means ‘pot.’ I know a man I 
named Pot. Mr. Keaton may know a French Pot—a 
Monsieur Vase—and on the strength of such acquaintance 
may mean to imply that I am ‘ Pot’s Brilliant; ’ but, if this 
he the ease, he must omit ihe second i in Brilliant before 
he puts it into French. If, however, his acquaintance 
should be limited to the various substantive members of the 
Vase family—two-handled,one.handled, no-handled, of night 
or of clay—will he not allow of the introduction of an article 
into his amendment, and make me ‘Brillant. d’un Vase,’ 
rather than insult me by saying that I am ‘ shining of pot,’ 
or ‘pot brilliant?’ Mr. Beaton musn’t be too hard on ‘ the 
slang of fellows who bud Boses, Ax., without a shoe or stocking 
on,' lest, perchance, he should sometimes find his own well- j 
shod foot ‘in the wrong boot.’ If he should be unkind 
enough to persist in the assertion that my surname is not 
a word, l must retaliate by giving to the world ‘a whole 
chapter’ of corrections of your English names of plants. 
Thus—Beaufe of Chestnut. All the English florists write j 
this name Beauty of Chcshunt. ‘ There is not such a word ' 
as’ Cheshunt in the English Dictionary. 'It may be the \ 
slang if fellows,' Ax. It ought to be Chestnut. It’s quite 
a parallel case.—Your injured, Brillant de Vaise.” 
HARDY WATER-PLANTS. 
“A. E. M. has a tank, shape circular, eight feet across, 
the water twenty inches deep, supplied through a jet from 
a cistern filled either with rain water or spring water 
pumped up and allowed to remain several hours in the sun 
before being turned on. The inside of the tank is cemented, 
and covered, both bottom and sides, with pieces of pndding- 
stone. What water-plants will be likely to thrive in it? and 
will they require to he planted in mould in a basket or pot, 
and sunk ? Though in Jersey, the situation is high and 
rather exposed, particularly to the east.” 
[The best plan would be to have six inches of strong, 
loamy soil laid all over the bottom of a tank of this size. 
The old Calla JEthiopica is the first plant, we would put 
into this tank, and Aponogeton distachyon next. Both are 
from the Cape, but have stood out in ponds in many parts 
of Scotland. Our own Buck-bean ( Memjanllies tnfpliuta), 
our flowering Rush ( Bntomus umbellatus), and the yellow 
and white Water-lilies (Niiphar Intea and Nymplura alba), 
are the best, and one of each would soon fill your tauk.] 
PETUNIA IMPER1ALIS. 
“ Has Petunia imperiiilis answered as a bedding plant? In 
my own instance it has hitherto completely failed, for,with all 
care to avoid the excessive luxuriance of its gross habit, it 
has given me a dense mass of leaves, with scarcely a single 
flower. This, however, may still arise from some fault in 
my management, for a plant that bore such high certificates 
on its first appearance can hardly merit the condemnation 
now so generally passed upon it as a bedder. For pot-culture 
and the early decoration of a greenhouse it may very possibly 
be well suited; but in its character as a bedding plant it 
certainly seems to have been unsuccessful.—W., Cornwall." 
[Exactly so; but it lias seeded, and seedlings from it are 
up, from which we shall in time have double flowers of all 
the colours to pay for the first disappointment.] 
