80 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May l. 
Epncris impressa alba : white. 
„ hyacinthiflora candidissima: beautiful white. 
„ sanguinea : crimson. 
,, Wilmoriana : light pink. 
„ coccinea Jloribunda: brilliant scarlet. 
„ lineata : light pink. 
IX STOVE AND ORCHID HOUSES. 
Ansellia Africana: yellow ground, with brown spots, large 
trusses of blooms. 
Angrcecum eburnum: large, white flower. 
Abrochynauthus pulchellus: white. 
Crinum Asiaticum: white. 
Conoclinium ianthemum: corymbs of flue blue flowers, 
with large, green, glaucous leaves. 
Cyrtuchilum maculatum: brown ground, with yellow spots, 
white and yellow lip. 
Cypripedium barbatum superbum : the best variety. 
„ villosurn (new) .• light brown; the upper petals 
edged with white. 
Dcndrobium nubile : light pink. 
„ ccerulescens : darker variety. 
Franciscea culycinea : large purple flowers with white eye. 
llfedinilla magnifica : large bunches of deep rose-coloured 
flowers, with fine, large, deep green foliage. 
Oncidium pubes: bronze ; free bloomer. 
„ Cavendishi: large, yellow. • 
Phalwnopsis gran diflora: white. 
HEATING A GREENHOUSE, PIT, AND 
ORCHARD-HOUSE. 
Observing, in a recent number of The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, a question put by two of your correspondents, “A 
Constant Reader,” and “ L. W.,” on the best mode of 
heating a greenhouse, and for growing Melons, Cucumbers, 
striking cuttings, &c., I beg to state, for their information, 
that I have a Greenhouse, Melon-pit, and Orchard-house, so 
arranged as to accomplish all these purposes. The follow¬ 
ing is a more detailed description :—1. A greenhouse sixteen 
feet long by twelve feet wide. 2. A pit of the same length, 
and six feet wide, for Melons and Cucumbers, and a portion 
of the bed for striking cuttings. 
About ten feet from the end of the Melon-pit, in a direc¬ 
tion parallel to it, I have—3. An Orchard-house for Peaches, 
Nectarines, Vines, Strawberries, &c. The whole heated by 
a small boiler, part of Pannell’s heating apparatus,—a retort 
boiler he calls it. It heats as follows :—1st. A flow and 
return four-inch pipe along the front and each end of the 
Greenhouse; a single four-inch pipe all round the Melon- 
pit, for top-heat, and a cement tank under the bed for 
bottom-heat. The flow and return pipe which heats the 
tank can be shut off, and turned round the Orchard-house. 
I consider this a very good arrangement, and the whole is 
heated in a very effective manner.—J. S. Lievre, Little 
Ashby Rectory. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
FOWLS—APRICOTS—WATER. 
“ My bees, managed according to Mr. Pain’s plan, are very 
liealtby and well. My fruit-trees, after Mr. Errington’s 
treatment, do well. And my poultry—but respecting these 
useful birds my present inquiry is made. My object in j 
keeping fowls is almost exclusively for the eggs, my pre- I 
ference being in favour of Cochin and Spanish; tire former j 
for winter, the latter for summer use. Can I do better? j 
My stock at present consists of not more than fourteen or ! 
sixteen, all healthy and well. My business, that of a baker, ! 
furnishes an abundance and great variety of food, indeed j 
more than I can keep fowls enough to consume. They 
have the entire run of a back yard, stable, &c., which is 
always vacant during the day, a large covered cart lodge, with | 
an uninterupted communication to a wide and quiet street by 
means of a passage cut in the door; and I observe, that 
after rain, and early in fine mornings, they take very long 
walks, never meeting with any interruption. Their food is 
given them in the following way. I have a separate box for 
each kind, which box is long and shallow', with a stick 
fastened upon the top to prevent them dirtying it with their 
feet. These boxes are replenished each day, w r hat is left 
from the preceding being always thrown to the dunghill. 
The sweepings of the bakehouse are carefully preserved, 
and with a little water mixed into shreds, as flour is used 
for making captain’s biscuits ; of this they are very fond; 
but I think my fowls are very dainty, preferring a variety, so 
they have the sweepings of the counter and shop, the grains 
from the yeast, and the refuse of the strainer, with an 
everlasting supply of fresh water, and whatever comes from 
the house, such as cabbage-leaves, tea-leaves, bones, &c. 
The fowl-house is kept very clean, and the yard also, every 
inch being paved. In winter they possess good quarters, 
roosting over the oven; but in summer time an airy and 
cool shed. Now 7 , I w'ant to know, under these circumstances, 
how many fowls may I keep to advantage ? 
“ If an Apricot tree be so situated as to make it incon¬ 
venient to remove the canvass shelter when once placed over 
it, w'ould it be attended with injurious effects if alknved to 
remain there ? The one to which I refer grows upon a sort 
of trellis-v'ork laid upon the tiles which covers the oven- 
house. 
“ Our town is well supplied with water from Artesian 
wells, which, after being subjected to Dr. Clarke’s softening 
process by lime, is conveyed through iron pipes, and is very 
soft and pure. Is this good for plants?— Edward Fare- 
brother, Woolwich." 
[Your Apricots would be tasteless, if they did not drop off 
before mature. 
The water will not injure your plants. 
Your selection of Spanish fowls as summer, and Shanghacs 
as winter layers is most judicious. But as you have not 
mentioned the size of your yard, it is not in our power to 
say Yes or No to the question of increasing your stock. As 
it appears, however, that you have no access to grass, 
limited numbers will be the best policy; for under your 
conditions, a small number of fowls may be kept with profit, 
where any overcrowding would be at once followed by 
disease.] 
HOT-WATER PIPES SINKING BELOW THE 
LEVEL OF THE BOILER. 
“ I want to convey water from the house-boiler to a hot¬ 
house I am building, at a distance of about nine yards ; 
the top of the boiler and tank being on a level. The flow 
and return-pipe from the boiler to the tank is to pass under 
the house floor; and the question is, would the water pass 
down, say two feet eight inches from the flow-pipe under the 
floor, circulate round the cemented tank, and return by the 
return-pipe under the floor, and rise to the boiler, two feet, 
to be again heated ?— Thomas Hill.” 
[We are not at all partial to heating by pipes under such 
circumstances ; but we have had several instances of water 
so placed in pipes under walks, &c., answering very well. 
The water will always stand at its level, and the application 
of heat will cause it to circulate. To prevent the possibility 
of a little confined air collecting in the lowest part, insert a 
small pipe of quarter-of-an-inch bore there, in each hot- 
water pipe, and let these small pipes rise higher than the 
level of the water in the tank or boiler. These are not 
absolutely necessary, and yet they would prevent some mis¬ 
chances. It seldom answers well to have any of the pipes 
lower than the boiler. If your hothouse is not very small, 
it would be better to have a boiler for it by itself. Would it be 
impracticable to convey the water in one-inch lead pipes above 
the floor ? If you resolve upon the plan, try how it succeeds 
before you replace the floor. Just on the principle of water 
finding its level, and ever discharging itself by means of a 
syphon, we have several times seen pipes dip several feet 
without any detriment, provided there was an open pipe 
attached to them; but when much lower than the boiler, 
interruptions were apt to occur-] 
I 
