March 27. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
J) ( 
w j MARCH 27—APRIL 2, 1855. 
Weather near London in 1853. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon*® 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
27 
To Aleochara obscura. 
30.199—30.192 
56—28 
W. 
_ 
50 a 5 
22 a 6 
4 1 
9 
5 36 
86 
28 
W Ptinus germanus. 
30.379—30.295 
61—28 
N.W. 
— 
4 7 
23 
4 31 
10 
5 18 
87 
29 
Th Megatoma undatum. 
30.387—30.312 
60—31 
W. 
— 
45 
25 
4 54 
11 
4 59 
88 
30 
F Byrrhus Pilula. 
30.294—30.212 
58—28 
s.w. 
— 
43 
27 
5 11 
12 
4 41 
89 
31 
S Byrrhus fasciatus. 
30.401—30.354 
57-29 
w. 
— 
41 
28 
5 25 
13 
4 22 
90 
1 
Son Palm Sonday. 
30.290-30.139 
71—30 
s.w. 
— 
39 
30 
5m37 
14 
4 4 
91 
2 
M Agonum picipes. 
30.409—30.250 
62—32 
E. 
— 
36 
32 
rises. 
© 
3 46 
92 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 54.2°, and 35°, respectively. The greatest heat, 75°, occurred on the 27th, in 1830; and the lowest cold 16 °, 
on the 27 th, in 1850. During the period 119 days were fine, and on 77 rain fell. 
The most recent, and one of the most useful, of horti¬ 
cultural publications is The Booh of the Garden.* The 
volumes are beautifully printed, and illustrated with 
1350 plates and woodcuts, some tinted, and all executed 
with most artistic excellence. 
The author, Mr. MTntosh, has filled the highest posts 
in gardening at the establishments of the Duke of 
Buccleueh and the King of the Belgians, and is now 
practising as a garden designer in Scotland. He is 
well qualified, therefore, by his knowledge, to be a 
teacher of gardening in all its departments; but the 
same knowledge enables him to form a sound judgment 
upon the practices suggested by others, aud he has the 
good sense as well as the justice to sanction those prac¬ 
tices, and to acknowledge the sources from whence he 
derived them. This renders The Booh of the Garden 
the more valuable. Besides being a record of the 
author’s own practice, it places before the reader the 
practice of others of the best gardeners down to the' 
time of publication. All the contents are well arranged, 
and though nothing will reconcile us to the use of such 
terms as “ Alliaceous,” and “ Acetariaceous,” when 
“ Onion ” and “ Salad ” would have been as expressive, 
yet such words need not be insuperably offensive, for 
there is a good Index at the end of each volume, and in 
those Indexes the popular words are employed. 
We recommend strongly these handsome volumes to 
all amateurs, and we have no hesitation in saying, that 
with them and The Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary for 
reference, they will have at hand all the horticultural 
information they can need for the cultivation of their 
gardens. We mention the “ Dictionary,” because in 
that is included a description and history, as well as the 
culture, of every genus and species of plant,—a special 
kind of information which The Booh of the Garden does 
not give. 
Although we delight even in the smell of such volumes 
as these new from the press, yet we delight, also, in the 
old literature of Gardening. It is told of Charles Lamb, 
that “ he was very fond of picking up the little duo¬ 
decimo volumes of Evelyn; and he mentioned his 
book of ‘ Sallets ’ with delight.” We always admired 
Charles Lamb, aud we now love him all the more, 
because we find that we were congenial in this fondness 
for old garden books. Nor will any one appreciate The 
* The Book of the Garden. By Charles M'latoah, F.R.P.S,, &c. In 
two vols. Vol. I. Structural. Price .C2 10 s. Vol. II. Cultural. 
Price £l 17 s. fld. W. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. 
Booh of the Garden less, if we compare some of its 
pages with those of an author “ when Gardening, 
heavenly maid, was young.” 
We have, side by side, four strongly contrasted 
volumes—these two portly volumes of The Booh of the 
Garden, and the two quaint little duodecimos, The 
Garden of Eden, “ By that learned and great observer 
Sir Hugh Plat, Kt.” Full two-and-a-half centuries 
have elapsed between the birth-times of these books, 
for the first of the little quaint fellows saw the light for 
the first time in 1600, but the second not until 1675. 
This, however, the editor assures us, was in manuscript 
when the first was printed, and we can promise our 
readers that the volumes contain a far greater number 
of useful suggestions than the Marquis of Worcester's 
much-famed Century of Inventions. 
Opening the first volume of The Booh of the Garden, 
we find Chapter IV. devoted to “ Heating as applied to 
Horticultural Erections,” and a most copious and most 
satisfactory chapter it is; but passing by its practical 
details, let us gossip a little over its historical portion. 
This portion states, “ The most primitive mode of 
heating was that employed by the Dutch, which must 
have been in use towards the end of the fifteenth, or 
beginning of the sixteenth century, for at that period 
their gardens contained many East Indian plants. The 
system is still very generally met with throughout Holland 
and the Netherlands, although many instances occur of 
more modern methods being adopted. It consisted of 
the common stove of the country, placed at one eDd of 
the hothouse, inside, the smoke and heated air being 
carried along the middle or front in earthenware tubes, 
about ten inches in diameter, and smaller at one end 
than at the other, so as to admit the end of the one 
entering that of the next, the joints being secured by 
cement or soft clay. This method was also in use in 
this country, only with the improvement of having the 
fire placed outside the house, and burning in a small 
furnace similar to those used at present for heating wash¬ 
house boilers. 
Another mode of heating them adopted on the Con¬ 
tinent, aud in some places still continued, was by a 
small iron waggon mounted on wheels, and filled with 
burning charcoal, which was drawn backwards and 
forwards through the house in severe weather! Strange 
as it may appear to many, such an apparatus was, not 
long ago, in use in the Botanic Garden at Oxford ; and 
No. CCCXXXIX. Vol XIII. 
