Januaby 20. the cottage GAEDENER. 305 
plants next season; but at tliat temperature they look 
as woe-begone, to the lovers of luxuriance, as Harry 
Moore’s scarlet geraniums would do. 
Eranthemum 2 }ulcliellum. — This is admired for its 
beautiful blue flowers. I have used it for many years 
for such a bouse. It requires just a little more heat in 
summer than the Jmticia q)eeiosa. The habit is natu¬ 
rally so good, it is almost impossible to make a leggy 
plant of it. Plants in such a house, and in a small 
j)lant-stove, have done equally well, and are now nearly 
done for the season. 
Eranthemum nervosum. —This seems merely a variety 
I of the last; but it is much dwarfer, and the leaves are 
j smaller. The backs of the leaves are generally warted, 
I which the uninitiated world mistake for disease. 
Euphorbia Jacquinmflora. —This will answer for a 
couple of mouths after the plants come into bloom. 
Plants from cuttings do little good the first year, even 
though you give them hotbed treatment the most of the 
snmnier. Old plants that produce stiff, long shoots after 
being pruned in spring, give the best results, and bear 
rougher treatment in summer. Cuttings must be allowed 
to dry before being inserted. Peat, a little loam, and a 
portion of broken bricks and lime rubbish will grow 
these plants well. Old ])lants may stand under shade 
when growing in the early part of summer; but they 
must have full exposure to light, and a fair portion of 
air in autumn. I have just noticed that this splendid 
gem is not in our Dictionary by the above name, but I 
presume it is identical fulgens. 
Poinsettia pulcherrima. —This, with its large crimson 
bracts, will make such a house a blaze from the middle 
of November to the middle of January. Cuttings of the 
old flowering-stems, six or eight inches long, dried on a 
shady dry shelf for eight days after being cut, and then 
inserted in sandy, open soil in a hotbed, will make nice 
little plants, with several shoots, each of which will be 
terminated with its blazer in winter; but two or three- 
year-old plants yield the finest heads. Prune back 
within two or three inches of the older wood in March 
or April, so as to leave as many buds as you wish 
shoots—from three to eight may be considered a fail- 
number. If one or two start with too much of a lead, 
stop them, so as to equalise the strength; but never 
stop after the first of June, or for your pains you will 
get shoots without flowers, or very small ones indeed. 
When fairly started, shift or top-dress. A cold pit, when 
you can give air, and keep close at will, will do for them 
after June. Manure waterings, in the warmest season, 
may be given freely. Everything that encourages 
strong, vigorous shoots, will also encourage large heads 
of dazzling crimson. To cause these to form, water 
should be minimised in October. I stated the other week 
that I had no experience with the white variety. Soil ; 
Loam and peat, with lime rubbish, and top-dressings 
in summer of cow-dung. 
But now a friend says, “ All very well, but with my 
one house for display, oven though I have all the con¬ 
veniences of which you speak, how am I to grow in tliat 
house such hardy things as you have lately been 
alluding to—some pet Cinerarias and Geraniums, &c.— 
and then flare up with such blazers as these?” All easy 
enough. Suppose you can command most heat in the 
centre of your house, place your hardy hard-wooded 
plants, such as Heaths, Epacris, &;c., at the ends ; next, 
the Cinerarias and Geraniums, &c.; and in the middle, 
such temporary plants as I have indicated to-day; and 
then give air at the ends, but give none in the middle. 
Supposing you can command the greatest heat at one 
end, just act accordingly. One part of the house will 
thus not only be warmer than the other, but there will 
be less movement in the atmosphere. E. Fish. 
CONSERVATIVE WALLS. 
{Continued from page 264.) 
I AM very much pleased with the remarks of my 
courteous friend, Mr. Fish, at page 202, on those walls, 
and think he is quite correct in observing, that wo need 
a well-defined name for every object in gardening. He, 
and our readers, will remember, that I was not satisfied 
with the ])resent term Conservative Wall, but would 
rather invent a new name, and call them Preservative 
W'^alls. This name, with due deference, I submit to Mr. 
Fish, would be, in many respects, better than Conserva¬ 
tory Walls, because that tornr would give an idea of 
what is called, jiar excellence, the Conservatory, a kind 
of aristocratic greenhouse, in which the plants, instead 
of being grown iu pots, are either planted out in bods, or 
if in pots. These are plunged out of sight, upon which 
point I may just remark, in passing, that where the 
plants are of a rampant habit of growth, the plunging 
them in pots has a tendency to prevent over luxuriance, 
and induce a more flowering habit. Whether the gar¬ 
dening world will adopt either Mr. Fish’s name or 
mine, is rather doubtful; for when once a name has got 
firmly established in the many-headed thing, called the 
public, it is almost an Herculean task to bring another, 
though a far better-defined name into general use. To 
conclude this tirade about a name, I would just define 
the words Preservative Wall to mean a wall to grow 
plants against, with or without glass, heated or not 
heated. This will distinguish it clearly enough from a 
Conservatory, a Greenhouse, or any other kind of gar¬ 
den erection. 1 now return to my original subject; and 
the next of my series of queries is—What kind of plants 
should be planted against a Preservative Wall ? Per¬ 
haps the best way to answer this will be by a negative 
description of what should not be planted. As it is an 
erection to cultivate either plants with beautiful foliage, 
though of small merit in bloom, and others of fine 
foliage and beautiful flowers, noplants of a fugacious habit 
should be used, such, for instance, as Cobea scandens, 
Tropoeolum Jarraltii, and T. azurea, Pelargoniums, the 
varieties of decided stove-plants, and all annuals. Neither 
should any be planted that are decidedly hardy enough 
to grow and bloom in the open air in every part of 
Great Bi-itain. Some plants are sufficiently hardy to 
bear the climate of Devon and Cornwall, and such may 
be fairly admitted as candidates for the honour of being 
sheltered by a Preservative Wall in the more northern 
parts of the country; whilst, again, in the mild climate of 
the counties referred to, some of the most hardy stove- 
plants might be admitted under their protecting and 
preserving influence, should one, or more than one, be 
put up in those parts of the country. 
Since I began these papers on these walls, I have 
had several letters on the subject; and one corres- 
jiondent suggests, “ instead of being at the expense of a 
heating apparatus, fuel, and attendance, would it not 
be desii-able to have a moveable canvass covering to roll 
down in frosty weatlier; and would not that be a 
sufficient preservative for the kind of plants proper for 
a wall of this kind ?” To this I can only reply, that I do 
not now, nor ever have stated, that a heated wall, or a I 
glass-covered wall, was absolutely indispensible; but i 
with these additions of heat and glass, the building i 
would be more ornamental and more enjoyable; and j 
thus it follows, as a matter of course, that to have a Pre- j 
servative Wall in perfection, the addition of beat and 
glass are desirable. If the wall is glass-cased only, and | 
not heated, such acovering asmy correspondentmentions i 
would be very useful, and would be certain to ward otf a 
great amount of cold in frosty, severe weather, as well as 
preventing the radiation of heat from the interior i 
through the glass. Plants, as Mr. Fish very justly ' 
observes, do not suffer so much when they are still, or. 
