April 3. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
7 
high, and out as a specimen plant on the grass, with no 
protection near, and I could not discover a speck on it 
from the frost. Niveum, Tkomsonii, and Falconerii, 
under the same conditions, and equally safe. Here, 
then, is a tale to go to market with. The Nurseries are 
loaded with such rare things which are as hardy as 
Junipers. One point, however, should be attended to 
in their cultivation, and that is, to ripen them as much 
as possible before the cold weather comes on in the 
autumn, for we must bear in mind, that the hot summer 
of 1854 was the real cause of saving so many of our 
best new plants from the severe frost which followed. 
What are the ways for ripening such plants, and how 
to apply them in wet and mild autumns, are questions 
not yet quite settled among gardeners, or if they were, 
the explanations would take me out of my depth to-day. 
I). Beaton. 
LITTLE MATTERS. 
STOVES INSIDE OF GREENHOUSES. 
There have been endless enquiries as to which stove, 
Joyce’s, Arnott’s, &c., is the best for this purpose, and 
our reply must honestly be, “ bad is the best.” No doubt, 
many combinations of these might be valuable in winter, 
in cool greenhouses, and in cold pits, where the great 
object is to exclude much amount of frost, and to pre¬ 
serve the plants in life rather than to grow them ; but 
each and every of them are dangerous when placed 
among growing plants, whether provided with a flue, as 
most of them, or guaranteed to give off no carbonic acid 
or other gases; when, instead of a flue, they are pro¬ 
vided with peculiarly prepared fuel, which must be 
purchased to burn in them. The latter might not be 
quite so daugerous in a closed room as a good-sized 
brazier of common charcoal, but our experience would 
lead us to say, that the danger would only be a little 
mitigated ; and I did try a good many experiments with 
these flueless stovos years ago. However useful the 
common iron-stove, with its attendant iron-pipe flue, 
may be in keeping out frost in winter, when the plants 
are kept nearly in a torpid state, they are dangerous 
utensils when a brisk heat is wanted; first, because, if 
the stove itself gets very hot, the fumes and gases 
thrown of!' will be prejudicial; and, secondly, however 
securely the joints of the smoke-pipe be luted, there is 
always the danger of back draughts escaping frqm some 
cranny, or from the feeding-place, into the bouse. I 
have known instances in which the hopes of the season 
were next to totally blighted from this cause alone. 
Even with a fairish brick smoke-flue, 1 have known an 
escape of gases through its chinks, when the fires were 
strong, destroy all such tender things as French Beans,in 
early spring, in a few minutes. Hence, then, as a general 
rule, however much your furnace, or boiler, or stove be 
inside the house, so as to secure all the heat possible, I 
decidedly recommend that the feeding-place for giving 
fresh fuel, and removing ashes, &c., should be outside 
the house; and that if an iron-pipe is used as a flue in 
the house the joints should be carefully luted. 
IRON PIPES AS FLUES. 
It will be observed that in all stoves where small 
iron-pipes are used for conveying away the smoke from 
such stoves in living rooms, ollioes, churches, &c , a 
peculiar kind of fuel, making but little smoke, such 
as coke, cinders, &c., is generally used. Such small 
pipes would not answer if common smoky coals 
were used, if the pipes traversed any distance, as after 
proceeding as far from the furnace as to permit by the 
comparative coolness for the deposition of soot, that 
would soon become so thick and firm as to prevent the 
draught, while it would be removed with great difficulty. 
Several, well aware of the heat-conducting powers of 
iron, have proposed the using of iron-pipes in small 
houses, for diffusing the heat from a common furnace, 
in preference to brick-flues; but in every case I know of, 
where pipes less than six or eight inches in diameter 
were used, and had to traverse a considerable distance, 
the draught was apt to be stopped by a firm deposition 
of soot, that was removed with difficulty, more especially 
when, as in the case of a flue, these pipes were placed 
nearly horizontally on a level, before they rose so as to 
form a chimney. Another argument against them is, 
that if strong fires were used, a space next the furnace 
was apt to become too hot; and the air near was apt 
to be scorched and vitiated in consequence. This was 
partly remedied by surrounding such part with rubble 
and sand. When the pipes were placed considerably 
inclined upwards instead of horizontally, the soot did 
not encrust so much. Considering, however, that 
economy, generally, demands that furnaces for green¬ 
houses should burn up all sorts of rubbish and refuse, 
this should be thought of before fixing upon an iron- 
pipe as the medium for conveying heat inside, as ex¬ 
perience would seem to say, either that you must have 
the best, and the least smoky fuel, or that you must 
have a pipe large in size. 
GLAZED EARTHENWARE PIPES FOR WATER, 
AND AS FLUES. 
Since the communication from Edinburgh, page 478, 
1 I have had several enquiries, first, as to the fitness of 
such pipes, three or four inches in diameter, for con¬ 
veying hot-water, instead of iron. If placed horizontally 
on a level, I do not see why they should not answer; 
but there would always be a danger of a pressure at the 
joints causing them to leak; and thus, even on the 
score of economy, they would ultimately be more ex¬ 
pensive than good iron pipes, while all danger from 
| such accidents as fractures would be avoided. The 
second enquiry has reference to such pipes soon getting 
1 clogged with soot, like an iron pipe. Of this I cannot 
j practically speak, having never tried them. No doubt, 
our Edinburgh correspondent will make that all clear. 
In the meantime, I may mention that one able gardener 
does not think that there will be any deposition in small 
houses, however rubbishy and smoky the fuel, owing to 
the inside being glazed, and the power of draft in such a 
circular medium. Another celebrated gardener tells me, 
that he has known such glazed pipes used as chimnies 
in greenhouses, and the draft was so great that the 
damper had always to be more or less used, to prevent 
the fire burning out too quickly. If such strong glazed 
pipes be thus proved so efficient as a flue in a small 
gi'eenhouse, it will be a considerable advantage to 
amateurs with small houses, except in continued severe 
weather in winter. A sudden heat, to meet a sudden 
frost, is what these houses chiefly require, and that heat 
to be communicated as economically as possible. True, 
with a small boiler, and three-inch pipe, the house may be 
quickly heated; but however uice the boiler, more beat | 
will march up the chimney than if there was a longish j 
flue for the smoke and heat to traverse. A strong-built 
flue, were it brick on bed, would be no disadvantage in 
a hothouse constantly at work, because the fire would 
be little out; and once such a mass is heated, it is 
maintained more easily at a regular temperature than 
by a fluo built with bricks on edge, and covered with a 
thin tile. The latter are best fitted for greenhouses, 
because they heat quickly and cool quickly ; but these, 
however neatly put together, could not rival, in this 
respect, these round earthenware pipes. I place much 
dependance upon what is stated to me of the quickness 
