February 6. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 355 
between them made exactly alike, and then the measui-e- 
ment taken for the glass. It will be sent cut exactly to 
your dimensions, especially if you do not plague the 
cutter with fractional parts of an inch. I mention this, 
as I know of several instances where the glass-cutter 
was blamed for not sending the sizes correctly, when 
the measuring-rule demonstrated that the fault lay with 
the carpenters in not fixing the rafters exactly at the 
same distance from each other. 
Our correspondent may rest assured that his questions 
will always be attended to, and as soon as possible, pro¬ 
vided too many do not come at one time. These ques¬ 
tions, in fact, are most useful, as enabling us to see what 
is wanted. To a few of these I will now shortly refer. 
The glazed division—and for this the cheapest patent 
plate, about 2M. per foot, would do admirably,—is a 
good idea, and you may keep this division as much 
higher in temperature than the other as you like, by 
having more heating power, and the means of heating 
it without the other. For such purposes as you con¬ 
template in your pit there will be no comparison 
between hot-water pipes and flues. The latter are 
apt to get out of order; gases escape from them noxious 
to vegetable life, and much moisture about them makes 
the bricks too soft and porous. In such a house, with 
bottom-heat in your pit, you could grow Cucumbers, or 
Melons, Vinos in pots, &c., when the bulk of your pro¬ 
pagating and flower-forcing is over. 
The question of a tank versus pipes for bottom-heat 
has been rather fully discussed. One of the cheapest 
and best modes of beating a house by a tank is given 
near the end of the second volume. It is quite a 
question, with me, of expense, and I would prefer pipes 
laid in and covered over with rough rubble, in pre¬ 
ference to tanks, because they will generally be found 
cheaper; while funnels for pouring water among the 
rubble will always give what moisture is requisite. If, 
in the early part of the season, the pit was filled with tan 
above the rubble, you would have a nice material for 
plunging propagating-pots in. Other materials would 
also do. If no fermenting material was easily procurable, 
rough gravel should be placed over the rubble of flints, 
brick-bats, &c , then finer gravel, and then sand, for 
setting the pots on, or plunging them in it. 
For such a house as we have proposed you would 
require a boiler, such as frequently is advertised in these 
columns as costing from four to five pounds. You would 
require aT piece for the floor, and another for the return- 
pipes. The boiler should be fixed at the hottest end of the 
house ; one flow and return should pass along the front of 
the house, and another How and return should passthrough 
the propagating-pit. I should recommend that the pipes 
be four-inch ones. It would be quite as well to keep 
the atmosphere heating-pipes as near the floor as that 
they will not be much above the pipes to be placed in 
the pit. These, or rather the one pipe, should go round 
the pit some twelve or fifteen inches from the sides, and 
then it will be equally heated. If so, the pipe should 
rise gently for half its length, and then fall gently to the 
boiler. A small air-pipe, as advised last week, should 
| be inserted in the highest point. If this T piece should 
j be exceptionable, or the connecting-pipe would be in 
I the way of a path, &c., then a lead pipe may be used, as 
lately recommended, for crossing beneath a path. If 
desirable to have a tank, instead of pipes a leaden pipe 
connected with the flow and return would be sufficient. 
However done, it will be advisable to heat the pit, if 
desirable, without heating the pipes for atmospheric 
temperature, by means of stop-cocks. These stop-cocks 
will be necessary at the point of the division, so as to 
regulate the heat of the cooler house. Many modes are 
used for this purpose. It is evident that a junction 
piece must he fixed here, so that the circulation in the 
warm house may bo perfect in itself. 
The question as to the growing of greenhouse-plants, 
and getting good Grapes in the same house, has also 
met with considerable attention. It must be seen, that 
the whole of such attempts is merely a compromise 
after the Vines get fairly into leaf and when they 
approach the ripening period. After such periods, the 
Geraniums should be confined to the front shelf. Fuchsias 
will do tolerably until when in bloom ; and Achimenes, 
and all the tribe of summer-plants, will do best of all, 
until the house requires to be kept a little dry for the 
Grapes, and the tenderest of the greenhouse-plants 
require house-room. There has already much been said 
how to make such houses of all work as useful and 
interesting as possible. I have such sympathy with all 
who attempt many things with little conveniencies, that 
1 feel pleasure in answering any particular question. 
Other matters relating to Roses, Fuchias, &c.,must wait a 
little; all will be alluded to in good time. Those who 
wish for early Fuchsias, may get them into a heat of 
50° to 55°, as soon as they like. We may repeat, we 
can say nothing new on this plant. R. Fish. 
CEPHALOTUS FOLLICULARIS. 
The New Holland Pitcher Plant. 
This elegaut little Pitcher Plant js a very suitable 
companion to the Dion tea mitscipula, or Venus’s Fly-trap, 
the history and culture of which the reader will find at 
page 103 of our twelfth volume. At the time when 1 
wrote that paper, I had this plant in my mind’s eye as 
a subject worthy of writing about, and commending to 
such readers of The Cottage Gardener as may have 
the means and inclination to cultivate it, Sarracenias, 
and other similar plants. 
The Ceplialotus derives its generic names from heplia- 
lotcs, headed-flowers produced in heads; and its specific 
name, folliculans, eared-bag, the pitchers having such 
a resemblance. It is a native of boggy marshes, in 
or near St. George's Sound, about six hundred miles 
from Sydney. This is the only habitat, or place where 
it is found wild. 
The plant forms a little tuft, and the pitchers are 
provided in close clusters, sitting, as it were, in a circle 
round the centre, from which the flower-stem rises, 
growing about a foot high, bearing a compound, ter¬ 
minal spike, or head of white flowers, not particularly 
showy; its great interest and beauty lying in its 
pitchers. These grow about four or five inches long, 
the lower part having a smoothness like a silk-bag; the 
upper part is curiously and beautifully thickened with 
a braided border, the edges of which are often of a 
reddish hue. It is one of those plants that the owner 
regards as a treasure pet, to be doubly cared for, and 
exhibited as one of the lions of his collection. Cul¬ 
tivated properly, it is not difficult either to grow or to 
increase, and yet I do not often meet with it, excepting 
at such places as Chatsworth, Kew, Mr. Rucker’s, at 
Wandsworth, Mrs. Lawrence’s, at Ealing Park, and one 
or two Botanic Gardens, and two or three of the best 
London Nurseries. The scarcity is, no doubt, owing to 
its culture being so little understood, and, consequently, 
it is lost by being treated in the ordinary wholesale way, 
to which, in too many places, all plants are subjected. 
I shall try to show the way in which it ought to be cul¬ 
tivated, and then, perhaps, I may see it more freely dis¬ 
tributed. It is not very costly, and, therefore, its price 
need not prevent its introduction into every stove in 
Great Britain. 
Culture— I would not recommend any one to pur¬ 
chase this rare plant before May, nor after September, 
because if it travels in cold weather its growth is 
| stopped, and, probably, its life destroyed during the 
