COUNTliY GENTLPJMAN’S COMPANION. 
Fekuuary .). 
vegetable. Plants, in a sudden frost, are often Imrried pell- 
mell into a house, when a dark, cool shed wovdd suit them 
! I'etter, until every vestige of tlie frost had left them. 
I Need 1 add, that the l)ud.s should he well nialured. Those 
1 plants in pots, after the buds are set and swelling, will he 
1 benefited by standing out-of doors, sheltered from the mid- 
' day sun, and housed before the cold and wet is too much for 
them.—11. Pish.] 
HEATING A GHEENHOUSE EHOM A KITCHEN 
! IIOILEH. 
! “1 am about to erect a greenhouse facing duo south, 
' twelve feet long by twelve feet broad, live feet high in front, 
- and ten feet at back. Now, 1 have a kitchen boiler which 
' hold.-:, say, ten gallons ; but this boiler is sixteen yards from 
! where I intend making the greenhouse, and by no means 
j can 1 have them nearer together. Now, 1 want to know if 
' I he house can be lieated by this boiler. I want to get, say, 
I {)(>’. Now, there are two things 1 am alraid of; thelirstis, I 
I think the water will get cold before reaching the greenhouse; 
the second is, that the lloor of the greenhouse will be eightfeet 
i below the boiler bottom. If you think the above plan can- 
! not be made to act, what sized boiler would you recommend? 
Please to state in inches. Could not gas be made to heat | 
it ? 1 thiidv it could, if the boiler was made of very thin iron, j 
Gas at our place is (Js. per 1000. What would the house; ! 
cost heating, think you, if gas could be made to do?—T. W.” | 
[We should think nothing of the distance of the boilei’, 
as the pipes could be kept partly from losing their heat by 
inclosing them in a tube of non-conducting matter; but the 
waste of pipe would be enormous—ninety six feet going and 
returning before getting into the house. We consider the 
position of your boiler a more fatal objection. The smallest 
boiler manufactured, about d.os. to 40s., would be more than 
ample for your house. A small Hue w'ould also do, if you 
were satisfied wdlh 45° or so, unless in .summer, when you 
would have the help from the sun. A small iron stove in 
the house, with a metal tube, carefully luted, to take the 
smoke out, would be the cheapest of all; but be sure you 
have a tube for the smoke. As rvo have not had practice 
Avith gas ourselves, we shall be obliged by a practical answer 
to the question of coat. We once saw a neat little green¬ 
house fixed between the glass door of the parlour and the 
small adjoining flower-garden. In the scullery below the 
parlour was a small tin kettle, the size of a fair-sized tea¬ 
kettle, hollow'ed concave beneath; two tin pipes, about two- 
inches-and a-half diameter, rvere fixed to this kettle, and 
went round the little house, and the kettle was heated by a 
jet of gas, and sometimes by a naptha lamp, and, I believe, 
answered w'ell. 'Phis would not be so suitable to our cor¬ 
respondent ; but much might be done in this w’ay, with small 
greenhouses close to the mansion, or where pipes could be 
taken ujnvards from a close kitchen boiler. A merchant 
consulted us the other other day, but too late, for his pipes 
would have to descend more than our correspondent’s; but 
there is always bother with any such plans.] 
PRUNING OLD STANDARD HONEYSUCKLES. 
“ I have some large, tine, standard AVoodbines, which are 
already showing many leaf-buds; but they appear old trees, 
otdy budding at the extremity of long, scrawly looking 
branches, the middle looking as yet dead brandies. Sliould 
they be occasionally cut down, or only thinned, like a Goose¬ 
berry-tree? And Avhat is the right time of year?—A Sub- 
SCEIBEK.” 
[,Vn old standard Honeysuckle is a most valuable plant for 
slight forcing, say,tohave it in Howerin Alarcli under the same 
treatment as Hoses. It flowers on last year’s wood, and the 
proper pruning of a Gooseberry bush is exactly the way to 
prune this standard, only that you may cut off the first six 
a few’ inches from the top of the young shoots of last sum¬ 
mer, and that should be done in October if the plant is to 
be forced ; but if not, any time before the end of March Avill 
do. By leaving Honeysuckle unpruned till the winter is 
well over, we often have them green when we come to cut 
them; but then the Row'er-buds are saved from the frost. On 
the supposition that your Honeysuckle is not to be forced, 
give it a good thinning at the end of this month, and stop 
or cut off all the tops that are green.] 
PRO LONGING C H RYS A NT 11E M U iM B LOOMING 
OUT OE-DOORS.—LOBELIA SYITIILITIGA AND 
RAiAIOSOIDES. 
“ 1 have read Avith much interest Mr. Beaton’s paper on 
the groAvth of the Chrysanthemum, in theDccember number 
i of Thk CoTT.ACiE Gaiideneb, pp. 100, 175, l!)5,and especially 
j that part relating to the cultivation of them out-of doors. 
I This entirely agrees AAoth mv' OAvn more trilling experience. 
There is, hoAvever, ojie point on Avhich I should be glad ot 
your or Mr. Beaton’s opinion, namely, Avhether they might 
' not be kept longer in bloom ont of doors by some kind of 
protection over them, Avhich Avould keep the hoar frost from 
falling upon thmn. I w'ould propose a light canvass shade, 
or cover, supported at throe feet above them, the plants 
being under a Avail in a double or trelile roAV. The canvass 
to hang doAvn in front, and to be removed in the day time, 
if the Aveather permit. 
“ Can LohUiu SijphUitica be propagated by seeds success¬ 
fully? Also, Lobelia ramosoiilesl —A'ekax.” 
[Our correspondent refers to the I’ompones; but, to sim- 
jilify such inquiries in future, each section of this great and 
increasing family should be particularly mentioned. Chry 
santhemums—[hat is, the large kinds—have been preserved 
from frost for many years, just as “ AbniAx” innposes for 
Pompones, and in ordinary seasons cut lloAvers can be had 
that Avay till the ncAv year; but this season the canvass and 
a mat over it failed to in;eserve the bloom, after the glass 
fell below 15°. To have those Pompones in continuous lloAver 
all the Avinter, one Avould need an orchard-housi’,—Avhich,likc 
a vinery, is, or ought to be, as dry as a clothes’ press,—late 
in the autumn, to ripeiA the fruit Avith the proper flavour. 
After the fruit is over, the inside of an orchard-house ought 
to be as dry as “tindei’,” and in that stale Avould keep Porn- 
pones and lai'ge Chrysanthemums to perfectioir—not in pots, 
hoAvevor, but Avith large balls from the open borders, as Mr. 
Salter disposes of them in his “ AVinter Garden.” There 
can be no question, hoAvover, about “AT;bax’s” proposed 
canvass-screen being as useful and effectual as he thinks ; 
and as there is no fear now for the popularity of Pompones 
I and Chrysanthemums, avo shall be glad to insert any and 
' CA'ery suggestion for their management which may reach us. 
j Lobelia si/philitica is hardly Avorth the trouble of groAving 
j from seeds, as it suckers as freely as Chrysanthemums ; and 
ramosnides never seeds, or, if it did, or does, it cannot be de- 
: pended on but by cuttings ; and four good plants of it should 
I produce tfObt) cuttings between this and planting-out time, 
i on the principle of compound interest.] 
TREATMENT OE RHODOLEIA CHAMPIONI AND 
LARDl Z AB A LA B1TE RN AT A. 
“ ‘ CAUtuci Catiiol ’ will feel much obliged for information 
as to the best mode and coinpoal for growing the new plant 
lllioiloleia Vlinmpioiii. He lias a small plant, aluuit seven 
inches high, and having a dozen healthy, dark-green leaves, 
but no appearance of groAA tli since ho got it, four months 
i since. It has been kept in a cool greenhouse, and is in a 
' very light, peaty compost. 
“He also requests similar infoi’ination regarding the 
Lanlizabala bilcriiata. (I’his he had from Paris, labelled 
L. Tnternala.) 'i'he Lardizahala is also, at present, in al¬ 
most pure peat. When received they were potted in soil as 
nearly alike to what they had about them as possible.” 
[Eor Rliodideia Championi Ave would recommend more 
heat than that of a cool greenhouse. In fact, so long as it 
is in a young state, the heat of an interuAediale house Avould 
suit it best during the first four months of the year. AVhen 
next shifted add a little fibry loam. (See an article by Mr. 
Appleby, J). 201, No. :324.) 
'Lhe Lardizahala Ave Avould keep in a coid stove during the 
cold months of the year, until Ave are better acquainted Avitb 
the low temperature it Avill stand.] 
