Jandaey 20. 
THE COTTAGE GAKDENER. 
I 
301 
their native conditions ; this, added to a scientific consi¬ 
deration of the properties of heat, constitutes any man a 
first-rate forcer, provided ho has the proper nieaus to 
carry out his views. This bo the maxim, then, with 
young forcers; in no case use extra appliances of heat 
irrespective of the amount of light. As for night-heats 
I in our forcing-houses, we are persuaded that a dimi- 
I nished amount, generally speaking, would be beneficial. 
] Orchids are said to ho tender things. We have a 
j house containing both eastern and western genera, the 
temperature by night of which, for the last three weeks, 
^ has not averaged above .50°, and yet the ])lants look 
j hearty, or rather robust. But they have had a roof- 
‘ covering nightly, and thus very slow firing sufficed. This 
question of roof covering has a kindred bearing on this 
portion of our remarks ; we have little doubt the time 
will arrive when they will, on all sides, be deemed a 
necessary a{)pendage of glazed structures; indeed, 
their utility is already recognised by most of our first- 
I rate gardeners, the only thing that remains is to pro¬ 
vide a material of general application, 
j Atmospheric Moisture is our next consideration ; and 
; the very mention of this brings to our mind the mummy 
I plants of our childhood, when crowded shelves of half- 
dried specimen plants might be seen in first-rate esta¬ 
blishments, the red spider, mealy bug, &c., rejoicing in 
a congenial element, and, doubtless, marvelling at 
finding that so far from their native home, foreigners of 
Man should share such amazing sympathies for their 
sustenance and preservation. In those fine old days 
there was none of your gimcrack dished-tiles, flangod- 
])ipeB, and evaporating-pans ; those are all innovations ; 
floors were white, walls were dry, and not a dew-drop 
or a pearly spangle to be seen ! The hothouse would 
have made a capital bed-room; however, the spiders 
and the bugs have the worst of it now, scarcely a 
soul can be found to patronise them. 
Joking aside, these were serious matters; humanity 
is a fine thing, aird so is sympathy; but in these days it 
begins at home. How they managed in those days to 
please the cook and the table-decker, it is now difficult 
to imagine. But how altered ! Now, where is the hot¬ 
house of any repute that has a heating apparatus 
without a provision for atmospheric moisture? To 
come, however, to principles—without a duo amount 
of this necessary element, the tax on the foliage of 
plants, in the form of perspiration, is too great at 
times to enable the plant, or tree, to present that degree 
of vigour which is at once the testimony of robust 
health, and the precursor of fruit or flowers. If any one 
cannot comprehend this, let him read of the parched 
wilds of Africa; or, indeed, come nearer home, and 
enquire why Britain boasts so of her green fields and 
lawns, as compared with some of our continental neigh¬ 
bours. A too high degree of evaporation, without a 
corresponding degree of absorption by the foliage, 
necessarily tends to that condition, which may be 
termed, in a mild way, leanness; and, however it happen, 
is the very condition to prejmre for the various insects 
which are the pests of vegetation, whether fruits or 
flowers. 
Every structure, therefore, of whatever character, 
appointed to gardening matters, should possess a special 
arrangement for the production of atmospheric moisture: 
we would scarcely except our succulent tribes. Let it 
not be understood, however, that we would have our 
readers for ever tampering with damp atmospheres; 
whilst we thus write, we must deprecate any rule without 
a principle. Even with the orchideous tribes, which 
revel in a warm and moist air, there are periods when 
even an almost dry atmosphere is beneficial for a 
few hours. 
After all this sifting of principles, let us take a little 
fresh air; let us think about ventilation —that principle 
so averse to what the gardener terms “ drawing;” for a 
drawn or over-lengthened plant is a sure evidence of 
mismanagement—of a debilitated constitution. 
We remember well the time when men of scientific 
attainments fancied that practical men were altogether 
wrong about this giving of air, ventilation, or whatever 
else folks call it. But they were wrong; the practical 
men had, no doubt, been occasionally guilty of a sort of 
mannerism; but from tliis even what class of society 
is totally exempt? It assuredly is not worth while to 
open the sashes of a greenhouse to a tempest, or to 
what country-folk call a thin wind ; but these are 
merely extravagancies. We say, ever endeavour to 
obtain a circulation in the confined, and, by conse¬ 
quence, stagnant air of your garden structures; if you 
must err, let it bo on the right side of nature. The 
great and marvellous world which we at jiresent inhabit 
has, thanks to God, neither roof nor sides like a hot¬ 
house; and though the poor, untaught heathen may 
fancy a boundary in the etherial blue overhead, we 
are assured that such bears the stainu of infinity. 
After all this, let us caution our readers against the 
abuse of this principle. Giving air, and giving arti¬ 
ficial heat, are each matters to be continually modified 
by existing circumstances; and such things make the 
life of a gai'dener one of continual watchfulness. It 
has been said that you can tell a gardener— a, genuine 
“ early York”—a mile off; so be it: so you may a ship 
captain, a lawyer, a chimney-sweep, and some other 
grades of society. 
Our early cucumber man would, if he grow little else, 
doubtless, speedily condemn us as horticultural latitudi- 
nariaus. What! ho may say, let a north-easter blow 
on the first ridged plants in the end of February? We 
say no, by no means; and are aware that such a free 
advocacy of ventilation may, indeed, subject us to a little 
prejudice. This should not he. 
i'o sum up the matter; light, heat, atmospheric mois¬ 
ture. and ventilation, are all powerful means to either 
good or bad ends in the hands of the cultivator. If he 
make an indiscreet use of them, that is, uses them irre 
spective of outward conditions, the fault is not ours. 
Here is the Scylla, there Charybdis, pray do not run 
your vessel against either. 
R. Ehringxon. 
BULBS. 
{Cunliniiedfrom pajc 215.) 
Buljuxe. —This is a very old-fash ioued class of 
plants, which were very much sought after when the 
rage for herbaceous plants, or, indeed, any class of 
plants which promised a long array of hard names, was 
at its height; flowers were very little thought of then 
in comparison to the numerical strength of a “ collec¬ 
tion.” The future historian of our days will have to 
record that we began to run into the opposite extreme 
early in the nineteenth century, and that w'e discarded a 
host of beautiful plants for no other reason than that 
wo could not manage them, for heddiwj out, or for speci¬ 
mens for flower-beds, or the exhibition tables, until 
towai'ds the middle of the century we began to perceive 
that the improvement of races could be pushed beyond 
the province of the mere florist. Even then, however, 
I fear we shall not have left much to raise the character 
of Bulimies or Bulhincllas. The only difference between 
Bulhines and Anthericums is in the colour of the flowers, 
the former being yellow or yellowish, and the others 
white. On account of the succulency of their leaves, 
they might be supposed to be Asphodels, but all of them 
are true Anthericums, and they require the same treat¬ 
ment, to bo planted on a warm dry border of light 
sandy-soil, and to be slightly protected in winter, which 
