140 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 21. 
saving them from too much of a dry heat. Tn fact, 
instead of making the plants to take a forced march, in 
unfavourable circumstances, you present them with a 
period, during which they can recruit their powers by 
rest and inaction; and if not carried to an extreme, they 
will afterwards reward you with their sturdy appearance. 
But you say this is all very well as a pleading in a 
case—protection and lowish temperature, in cold weather, 
versus the furnace and a hot dry atmosphere —but what 
has that to do with air-giving? Well, I may be wrong; 
hut in the case under consideration, 1 could hardly dis¬ 
sociate the one from the other, they seem so much like 
twin sisters ; or pretty well as much united as husband 
and wife. But now, since we have come to the length 
of allowiug the thermometer to fall a few degrees, in 
preference to dry roasting the plants, let us walk into 
the house at six or seven in the morning—it stands at 
40° ; all right; hut it is biting cold ; the outside thermo¬ 
meter is at 18°, and we may expect it to fall a degree or 
two more before sunrise, and a brisk breeze is bringing j 
the blood to the skin, and a black frost and a hazy mist 
tells us there will be little or no sunshine to-day. The 
first thing to do is to stir up aud light a fire, just to 
prevent the house getting lower; and if the black frost 
continues, and there is no sun, a mild fire will have to 
! be kept up all day, so as to raise the house from 5° to 
8° before the evening, allowing it to fall again during 
the night. With such a wind, sweeping off the heat 
in a five-fold ratio, the more glass that can be covered, 
even during the day, the better; provided the days of such 
a kind are not numerous at onetime; and every hole and 
cranny should be stopped ; for with all our care, quite 
enough of cold will get in without any air-giving. 
But in another case, with an equally severe night, the | 
day and the morning aro different; for the sun shines J 
j brightly, even though it freezes hard in the shade. | 
With the first buddings of sunshine, the fire-heat should 
decline. It will then require more sun-heat to raise 
; the house, 5° or 10° higher than usual; and that, 
in general cases, in such circumstances, I would do 
; before opening any part to the external air. Aud how 
to do it then ? Throw open your front sashes freely? as 
j w T e have seen clever youths not seldom do, aud who 
ought to have carried a good mark of a cudgel, as 
1 their star and ribbon of honour from the court of 
promotion and progress. No! but when the house 
: rises to (10°, aud onwards, the foliage receiving a 
slight dewing from the syringe, aud this rising will 
take place sooner or later, or not at all, to the above 
height, in proportion to the size of the house, as respects 
! its cubic feet of air, and the inclination of the glass, 
meeting the sun’s rays at a perpendicular, or a more 
obtuse line of incidence; when this rising does take 
place, we would merely give a moderate portion, or 
rather, a very small portion, of air at the top sashes, or 
the highest point in the roof, and that for two reasons: 
first, the air will be more heated and rarified there, on 
the outside, on account of the sun striking against the 
glass; and, secondly, the air thus partly warmed, on the 
opening of the sash, passes at once through the warmest 
and moistest air of the house, and thus becomes heated 
and moistened before it comes in contact with the plants. 
I f the day was windy as well as sunny, even more care 
would he necessary to give little; and in extreme cases, 
and with young beginners, stretching fine netting over 
the openings would be an advantage. In either case, 
during the winter months, with every prospect of again 
having a frosty night, shut up close between one and 
two o'clock in the afternoon. 
The case of fine, mild weather having been taken 
into consideration, there is only one further case to 
which I will refer:—Cold, damp, still, foggy weather, 
that searches its way into every nook and crannie. 
i This damp fog never yet did any good to greenhouse 
plants, aud to such tribes as the Heath nothing can be 
worse; for, if long continued, it is a sure winding-sheet 
for them. This dull, thick fog is generally attended 
with cold weather, the temperature not often being 
many degrees above freezing. The difference in heat 
alone will often he sufficient to keep it outside of our 
greenhouses, and as to opening a sash to hid it welcome, 
that must not for a moment be thought on. Sometimes 
it will enter—especially if the weather is rather warm— 
and when it does, it must bo let out again by lighting a 
fire, the heat from which will change the visible into 
invisible vapour, and cause a circulation, or rather 
moving of the air of the house. In extreme cases, 
when the weather is very still, a little air may be required 
to aid the fire-heat in promoting motion, &c ; but, as 
soon as the enclosed atmosphere becomes clear again, 
the air openings may again be shut. 
Taking these few cases as prominent points of obser¬ 
vation, the matter of air-giving in winter will he relieved 
of many of its perplexities. The giving air to a green¬ 
house in summer is a very simple affair. 
R. Fish. 
ACROPHYLLUM VENOSUM, OR VEINED 
ACROPHYLLUM. 
This very handsome hard-wooded plant is a native of 
New Holland, and is still rare in collections, on account 
of a supposed difficulty in propagating it. It, also, is 
somewhat difficult to grow well. I have, however, seen, 
at some of the Metropolitan Exhibitions, a plant or two 
in perfect luxuriant health, and exceedingly well-bloomed; 
proving, by ocular demonstration, that the plant may 
be cultivated with perfect success, if the right method is 
followed. It is one of those plants that the common 
attention (such as is too generally given to greenhouse 
plants) would infallibly destroy. 1 have frequently met 
with it in even respectable places, where many stronger 
plants were grown well, in a most wretched condition ; 
and when I noticed it, I was generally informed that it 
was a sickly plant when purchased, and had never re¬ 
covered. Thus the poor nurseryman was blamed, aud 
made answerable for the ill-health of a plant that had 
been out of his hands for years. 
Now,! do not pretend to deny, that sometimes this 
and other difficult plants may come to a gardener in in¬ 
different health, but then, the gardener's duty is to strive, 
with all his means and skill, to recover such plants, and 
put them into good health, by superior treatment; but 1 
fear, in too many cases, the plants have come to the 
gardener in good health, and have been improperly, not 
to say carelessly, treated, and thus made sickly, un¬ 
sightly objects; anything but a credit to the place. 
Some may say, and truly, too, “ 1 never had this plant 
under my care before, and, therefore, I must learn the 
right way to grow it from some one that has.” Happy 
man-he is that is willing to learn, and not too proud to 
be taught, however high his position in the gardening 
world may be. A man of a teachable, ingenuous mind 
is he, aud I warrant will soon grow any plant well, 
however difficult it may he. 
Such choice plants as this Aci'opliyUu/m, and some 
others, I have resolved to rescue from the unmerited 
obloquy of being difficult to cultivate, by giving, now 
and then, the culture in full, necessary to ensure success; 
and l am pretty certain many a cultivator will thank 
mo for my information, and will he tempted to purchase 
a plant to try his skill in applying such information on 
its culture. 
Acroplnjllum venosum is a bushy, slow-growing shrub, 
with oval-shaped leaves, sharply cut at the edges. When 
in health, the leaves should be green, slightly tinged 
with bronze. When it is badly treated, the leaves are 
