8 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Apiul 7. 
eight to eighteen inches. Over this I placed a thin 
layer of clean rough gravel, about the size of walnuts, 
and before placing in the growing or plunging material, 
a layer of turf in thin strips, or two or three inches of 
half-rotten leaves are laid over the bottom to keep the 
soil, &c., from falling among the stones, brickbats, &c. 
Care is also taken to fix a drain-tile, or tube of wood, 
tin, or anything easiest obtainable, in every other light, 
with one end amongst the rough material beneath, and 
the other above the earth, &c., in which the plants 
grow, and by pouring water down these tubes I can 
have a moist bottom-heat at will. This is of importance 
in many cases, such, for instance, as a thin-skinned 
! melon, that requires a high temperature, and a dryish 
j atmosphere to mature it in perfection. If you water on 
j the surface, your melon rots and cracks, and if allow 
j the soil to get dry to a good depth, your leaves fade, 
and give you a melon without flavour. Pour water thus 
beneath, and the roots will feed on the vapour, while 
the surface will be dry. 
Simple as the whole arrangement appears, there is a 
liability to contingincies. A hot day unexpectedly 
comes, and you order the top-heat to be turned off, and 
the wrong valve is shut. Or if the heat is turned off 
right enough, the fire may be too strong, and make the 
bottom pipes too hot, and this requires more trouble to 
detect. 
In all cases where a mild continuous bottom-heat, and 
a rather high atmospheric temperature is required as 
contmously, I shoxdd be inclined to adopt the mode, not 
more simple than effectual, practised by Mr. Fleming, 
in the Pinery at Trentham. His flow-pipes are taken 
back and front round the house, and then return beneath 
the bed. When he finds the top temperature right, no 
mismanagement can make the bottom temperature too 
hot. One objection presented itself to my mind, namely, 
a season of fine weather, when artificial top temperature 
was not requisite, and yet the bottom temperature got 
lower than was desirable. Mr. Fleming replied that it 
seldom occurred; and when it did, that they put on a 
brisk fire, filled all evaporating-pans on the pipes with 
water, and gave an additional quantity of air. I mention 
this more particularly, as the same correspondent makes 
enquiries about Pines. Nothing could be more robust 
than those at Trentham ; the plants near the glass, with 
plenty of air, short and stubby, but with leaves as stiff as 
pokers. Still, in small gardens, where a range of pits 1 
must have many different tenants in a season, I should 
prefer having the top and bottom-heat separate, and to 
be put off and on at pleasure. 
One or two more suggestions, and, for the present, 
we leave the subject. A friend lately told me, he saw 
nothing of the simple or the novel in all this ; that he 
heats a pit with a good-sized tank underneath the bed, 
and that he has funnels back and front, with lids to let 
up the heat at pleasure. And this he calls marching 
on in the way of improvement! Why, we have managed 
pits, and houses, exactly on the same principle, the best 
part of an age ago, by means of the old smoke flue 
passing through a rough-formed chamber. The same 
plan would just be more safe with pipes—and the 
question between them and the tanks would resolve 
itself into the double question of first cost and ultimate 
economy. As to any novelty in the principle of heating, 
it is more seeming than real. In either case, you must 
have bottom-heat before you can have top-heat. 
Another says, “Well, if the principle is not new, 
there is a novel application of it in my case. Beneath 
the cover of my tank and the water level are openings 
left for the steam to escape from the hot-water, and by 
the time this gets into the air of the pit, through the 
fuqnels at the sides, it is so sweet and mild, as must be 
the very identical moist atmosphere you are always 
recommending for grafting greenhouse plants, and pro¬ 
pagating all kinds of cuttings.” There is force in this | 
statement, if the place was used entirely for propagating, 
and you could calculate on the weather. But, it it was 
cold and misty, you would have to shut your tunnels, or 
you would have more than enough of moisture; and 
you cannot have top-heat direct without it, as you can¬ 
not get underneath your bed to stop rip the vapour- i 
holes. Here, again, for most purposes, I would prefer 
pipes, as a dry or a moist heat, which, even with the 
; heating power all beneath, may be commanded at 
will. 
It will be perceived, that in speaking of tanks and 
pipes for bottom heat, I have been supposing general 
circumstances, such as preclude easy examination of the 
bottom-heating medium. When used inside a house, so 
as to be easily examined, with slides to shut at will, so 
! as to give top-heat, or bottom-heat, dry or moist heat, at 
pleasure. Then, for many purposes, tanks are extremely 
valuable. There is a prejudice in their favour, so tar j 
as obtaining moist heat is concerned. 1 have seen many 
very economical ones well suited to amateurs who do j 
not wish to spend much A substantial one may consist 
of stout slate for bottom and top, and two bricks on 
the bed, for sides and centre. A small one, not intended 
to carry much weight, may be of common house-slate, 
bedded on clay puddle on solid earth; and, when that 
is set and dry, the upper part cemented over, while one 
brick, on edge, set on the slate, cemented at the joints 
securely, and receiving a coat all over, would constitute 
the sides. Single or double slating would then con¬ 
stitute a corner, some of which might be movable. 
With the exception of two or three feet of iron piping 
at the small boiler, lead pipes would do to connect the 
boiler and tank. This, with a careful man, would be 
a useful, but a gingerbread, rickety affair. There is 
nothing that either of these tanks can do that pipes 
cannot accomplish, if enclosed in a box or mass of 
rubble, with fine matter on the surface. Three, four, or 
six-inch pipes would be required, according to the heat 
wanted and the space to be heated. The nearest iron¬ 
monger, or any wholesale house, or hot-house builder, 
can tell you the price; and I think you will find them 
not only as good, if not better, but cheaper in the end 
than tanks. Until lately, good pipes could be obtained 
at from 9d. to Is. per foot. Use none less than three 
inches, as, when less, the amount of friction lessens the 
circulation. 
C ALCE OLARIAS FOR BEDS AND BASKETS. 
A very successful gardener in Kent, in an interesting 
letter, states,—that he strikes his Calceolarias under 
hand-lights; and has this season, as well as the last, 
kept them thick in these glasses all the winter. Ho 
adds, “whenever the weather settles, I plant them out in 
a temporary pit or bed until bedding-out time.” This is 
another confirmation what an amount of moisture, and 
cold too, short of actual frost, these plants will stand 
uninjured. Many who lose these plants in winter, from 
their kindness in giving them warmth and dryness, might 
have been led to imitate the success of our friend, if they 
had noted what had been said of the native localities of j 
such plants on the hill side of Peru and Mexico. The 
same correspondent tells us, he finds that pricking-out 
in these intermediate beds answers better for the plants 
ultimately than coddling them up in pots. I generally 
so manage everything that has fibrous roots—and many 
that will not be induced to make such roots, we wrap j 
with a little earth in a handful of moss, and then place 
them in this preparatory bed to receive the necessary 
amount of protection until the middle of May. Multi¬ 
tudes, when planted last season, had the white roots 
peeping all round through the ball of moss, and were 
thus easily moved and planted, moss and alf 
