188 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 5. 
[Your proposed Orcliid-house is on a very good plan, and 
an eminent Orchid grower says it will answer admirably. 
There is no objection to having walls instead of upright 
glass. The Orchid-houses belonging to R. S. Holford, 
Esq., at Weston Birt, in Gloucestershire, are all (there are 
four of them) built exactly like your plan, and nowhere do 
Orchids thrive better. Your proposed plan of letting in 
fresh air through a hollow wall, will, in hot weather, scarcely 
be sufficient. We would recommend, in addition, sliding 
doors, some fourteen or eighteen feet apart, fixed in the 
wall, to be opened on great occasions, the air from them to 
pass over open cisterns containing hot-water. It would take 
up moisture, and, consequently, give out air laden with that, 
to Orchids, necessary element. Your plan of giving air by 
means of moveable board is capable of amendment. Have, 
at six or seven feet apart, a glazed span frame, about two 
feet long, and a foot wide, resting upon a frame of wood of 
the same dimensions. This glazed frame to be balanced 
with a weight. When the air is too hot, the weight and 
frame to be lifted up six inches, by a pulley and cord, and 
when the air is cooled, to be let down again into its place. 
The advantages of this over your moveable board would be, 
more light, and less liability to get out of order, and 
greater certainty in giving air. 
Your great query, however, is the mode of heating, and 
the kind of boiler. You seem to be inclined to an oblong 
open one, and for the reason that it is easier managed by 
unskilled attendants. This is, we think, a mistake. In cold 
weather, when great fires are necessary, the water will often 
become of boiling heat, and then, of course, steam is 
generated, scalding-hot steam, which would infallibly kill 
any plants near to it. Take our advice, and have a good, 
substantial saddle boiler, with plenty of space under it, to 
hold fuel. We have proved this kind of boiler repeatedly, 
and always found it to answer well, and last long in use. 
The arrangement of your pipes cannot be improved ; hut 
why not make use of a flue under them. A great body of 
•heat is lost when the smoke from the fire ascends at once 
into the air. If you think the entire length of your two 
houses would be too far for the smoke to travel, then confine 
it to the first house, and let that contain your Indian 
Orchids. To moisten the air, cover the fire with dished tiles, 
to hold water. Your boiler should be three feet long, and 
two-and-a-lialf feet wide. This will allow six inches of 
water on each side, and eighteen inches inside for the fire. 
From the bars to the inside top of the boiler should be 
about fifteen inches. This space would hold fuel enough 
to last twelve or fourteen hours. The ash-pit should also 
be capacious, and should be twenty inches wide, and a foot 
or more deep. A great improvement on fire-places may be 
effected, by having a large iron door to cover entirely the 
furnace-door and ash-pit. This door to be shut when the 
fire is red, and the house sufficiently heated for the night. 
It would completely prevent the entrance of cold air, and 
keep the fire in for many more hours than if the fire-door 
and ash-pit were exposed.] 
GREENHOUSE Y/ITH WEST ASPECT. 
“ I am intending to build a small greenhouse for the 
culture of Geraniums, Cinerarias, Fuchsias, &c., which I 
should like to place on the west front of my house ; but I 
fear, if built in the form of a lean-to, the aspect would be 
unfavourable. Will you kindly give me your opinion on this 
point ? 
“ If not placed in this situation, it must be built in the 
centre of the garden, where the back wall would be con¬ 
spicuous. Would it be objectionable to cover it with Ivy ? 
“ I am advised to choose a lean-to in preference to the 
span-roof, on economical principles.— Anna." 
[Your greenhouse will grow your plants admirably, if 'a 
lean-to, and facing the west; but we would advise the south 
end to be nearly all glass, as far down, at least, as the stage. 
The chief objection to such an aspect is the great heat from 
the sun in summer afternoons ; and, at these periods, you 
must be particular in giving air. If it mot your wishes, on 
this account we would recommend the sloping roof of 
Hartley’s Patent, and the south end, and the upright glass 
in front, to be crown-glass; the latter to be shaded in the after¬ 
noon, either with a curtain, or a little size put on the glass 
for that season. 
If you built your house in the garden, there could ho no 
objection to covering the outside of the wall with Ivy. 
Of course, span-roofed houses, nearly all glass, require more 
heating in cold weather than a lean-to. You would lately 
see a modification of the lean-to, as practised at Hitcliin 
Nursery; hut probably it would not he elegant enough to 
suit you. For all the purposes you mention, the position 
you allude to will answer well; and being close to the living 
rooms is a great recommendation.] 
HEATING A CUCUMBER AND MELON-PIT. 
“ I am about to erect a pit for the growth of Cucumbers 
and Melons, and other general purposes (Pines excluded) ; 
the length will he about forty-three feet, by nine feet wide, 
outside measurement. It is to be heated on the hot-water 
system, and it is proposed to place the boiler in the middle, 
at the back of the pit, outside, and to work it right and left 
from the boiler. There will be ten sheets of glass in the 
whole length ; of course, it will be divided in the middle; 
then one end will be divided into two, and the other end 
into three divisions, as it is proposed to build up one sheet 
entirely for propagating. It is likewise proposed to run the 
flow-pipes from the boiler across to the ffbnt, then along 
the front for top-heat, then descend and run three times 
backward and forward underneath for bottom-heat, before it 
enters the boiler, using three-inch pipes. If it is found that 
is not sufficient for top-heat, to fix a sort of tube, or funnel 
(say a few common drain tiles), through the centre of the 
bed in each division to communicate with the bottom-heat, 
to open and shut according as circumstances require. Do 
you approve of these arrangements ?—T. S. S. H." 
[We quite approve of having your furnace and boiler in 
the middle, at the back of the range. You can thus heat 
either half—separately, as you like. See what was said 
lately to other correspondents, on a similar subject; and 
what was said of a plan adopted by Mr. Fish. By the plan 
you propose, you are quite aware that you can have no 
bottom-heat without top-heat. You do not say what num. 
ber of flow-pipes you have in each division; if only one, 
you will not have heat enough ; and will require tubes, to 
allow heat to rise from the three pipes you appropriate to 
bottom-heat. For several purposes, such as continuous 
Pine growing, we should so far adopt your plan as to have 
two flow-pipes and two returns; the one above, the other 
below. But as you speak of using these pits for various 
purposes, we should prefer having the power to give top- 
lieat and bottom-heat separately, having a flow and return- 
pipe for each. In doing this, we would take the flow-pipe 
from the boiler, into a cistern, placed eighteen inches or so 
above the highest pipe-; and in this cistern we would have 
four holes for other pipes, which would thus supply two 
flows for bottom-heat of both divisions; or two small 
cisterns, one in each division. These holes, or pipe open¬ 
ings, being fitted with valves, or wooden plugs, you could 
let the heat on one, or all four, as you liked. Did you in¬ 
tend to force very early, we would advise four-inch pipes, 
instead of three-inch. Of course, you are aware that 
however many the compartments you may have in each 
division, the temperature will nearly be the same—of that 
half of your range; and did you wish for power over each 
compartment, you must have stop-cocks at each.] 
COMBINING I-IOT-WATER WITH FLUE-HEATING. 
“ I have a small greenhouse and propagating house, which 
is heated by a furnace in front, and a flue running along 
inside the house; the fire-place, or furnace, is quite outside, 
and about three feet in length before it reaches the house; 
over this furnace I have a pit covered with glass, eleven 
feet long, one foot deep, three feet wide. This becomes 
very warm when the fire is lighted, and there is a hole in 
the floor of it by which I can admit more or less heat, as I 
want it. I conceive that it would not be difficult to have a 
water tank in the floor of this small pit, heated from the 
fire below, which might be used for spring propagation of 
Cucumbers, Melons, and cuttings of various kinds. Your 
opinion will be valuable, and still more so any direction 
you will give. Should there be a circulation of the water ? 
or will it answer in one mass, replenished as wanted ? The 
simple question is, how I can best arrange a tank over the 
fire, to fill the whole floor of the small pit? which floor is 
