303 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 31. 
background, and select a row of tall, mixed kinds to 
plant where the Clarkia stood, and a row of dwarf ones 
in place of the Eucaridiums, and, my word for it, you 
will never repent of that bed. If the Eucaridium was 
sown on a south border on the 1st of April, and the 
Clarkia on an 'open piece of ground about the 10th of 
April, and say, the Geraniums were planted out on the 
15th of May, both the annuals would be in bloom on 
or about the 1st of July, and both would keep in flower 
full six weeks. Now, seeing the score of the finest 
annuals which can be had for a mere trifle; seeing, also, 
that to sow them anywhere from the 1st to the 15th of 
April; seeing, moreover, that they do not take up one 
inch of your ground after they are thus transplanted in 
May into the regular flower-beds, and make those beds 
look all the better for a long while; I shall never cease 
to believe that half the world are daft for not taking 
advantage of them; and the other half of the w'orld very 
foolish for having their beds so naked all through June, 
or for six weeks after planting out. 
UNION OF THE RHODODENDRON AND 
NASTURTIUM. 
By the way, I made a new move, the other day, in a 
beautiful flower-garden, to which I have access at all 
reasonable and unreasonable hours. I made a “ burning 
bush” of an old Rhododendron, and you never saw 
such an effect before. There was a self-sown Nastur¬ 
tium (Troi'xeoleinn) trailling along, and running over 
every thing, and what did 1 do to stop it but strip oft' 
every leaf on it which was bigger than a shilling; then 
to get it more out of the way, it occurred to me to train 
it all over the Rhododendron; audso I did; tying it here 
and there till the bush was quite covered; and in a day 
or two, when the flowers had time to turn to the sun, 
that bush was the gayest in the garden, and as long as 
I live I shall recommend the plan for the front of shrub¬ 
beries, for rock and root-work, for the wilderness, and 
near water and water-falls. The bushes must be rather 
bare of leaves to give the full effect. In April, I would 
send a man round with a barrowful of rich compost 
from the back-yard; tell him to throw out a spadeful 
under this bush, and from the side of that bush, and all 
the bushes I wanted to set on fire that season; then fill 
the holes from his barrow, and drop three or four Nastur¬ 
tium seeds in each ; and 1 would tell that man that he 
must look to them all that season ; that he would allow' 
a good tuft of leaves to come at first, till the plants began 
to “run;” then, that all the big leaves on the running 
shoots should be cut close off,—not leaving the long foot¬ 
stalks, I mean ; that the shoots should be trained as 
regularly as Melon shoots, and tied as securely as Vine 
shoots, and all the rest of it. Meantime, you might lock 
round the garden, and see if you have some stray plants 
of this kind looking as if they belonged to nobody ; do 
as I did, or if you have no bushes near, make bushes 
“ out of your owm head ;” they will answer just as well; 
or allow me to say how. Make a circle with your finger 
all round the plant, or clump of plants ; then get a lot 
of the tops of pea-sticks, from three to four feet long; fix 
them in this ring, with the tops standing out wider 
than the circle ; then put three or four of the longest in 
the middle; train your plants over these, and you have 
a burning bush in two or three days; but do not go 
about and say that it is a plan of your own; because 
half the garden people read The Cottage Gardener, 
and you would be found out, which would spoil the 
thing for the rest of the season. D. Beaton. 
London University. — The Professorships of Che¬ 
mistry and of Practical Chemistry are now united and 
held by Dr. A. W. Williamson, who formerly held the 
first Professorship only. 
HEATING PITS.—TANKS FOR HEATING.— 
ROSE CUTTINGS. 
“ In The Cottage Gardener for May last, page 80, 
I saw mention of a cement tank for heating a Melon- 
pit, &c.; but it is not stated how it is constructed. We 
have a pit for a similar purpose (as w'as mentioned 
in The Cottage Gardener of November, 185-i, page 
140, and also a ground plan of a Vinery with the pit 
attached to it, January, 1855, page 280), which is now 
heated with a two-inch pipe, but it does scarcely any good. 
I should feel obliged if any one would kindly inform 
me whether we could heat this pit with a cement tank, 
or of any other sort. The pipes gradually drop all round 
the pit, from the flow to the return-pipe into the boiler, 
which is about two feet drop. The pit is about eight 
feet square. Must the tank be level ? or can it drop in 
the same w r ay as the pipes? and what sized tank will it 
require for so small a pit? The flow-pipe is above the 
bottom of the pit, and has to drop from the house into 
it. 1 want to strike some cuttings of Roses for pot- 
culture. When is the best time, and the best mode of 
making and setting the cuttings? — A Constant 
Reader.” 
There have been so many articles on this subject, 
that it is quite impossible to state anything fresh. As 
plain as others as well as myself have endeavoured to 
make it, it would appear, from the above letter, as well 
as from several others lying beside me, that we have so 
far respectively failed in our object. It would require 
very specific details of wants before the matter could be 
made more simple. Part of the misapprehension arises 
from the strange tales that are every now and then 
circulated, us to the ease and economy with which 
houses and pits may be heated by one mode in pre¬ 
ference to another. Hence, the vaunted superiority of 
one boiler over another, anu the wonders that have been 
done by tank-heating, as if there was something 
mysterious about it, the heat being so sweet and genial, 
and so forth. Now, much of this misapprehension 
would be dispelled were two facts kept in mind; first, 
that no more than a certain quantity of heat can be 
extracted from a certain quantity and quality of fuel, 
and that whether a house be heated by pipes, or a tank, 
if close, be it of brick, slate, or iron, matters not a brass 
farthing, as to the genial heat it produces. With 
respect to the first, it may be said that every system of 
heating by hot-water only involves a loss of fuel; that loss 
would be lessened by having a flue in addition ; but 
even that would not always be clear gain, as the length 
of a flue, if at all intricate, arrests frequently the brisk¬ 
ness of the draught; and thus, what savours of economy 
on one hand is apt to entail loss by not keeping out 
John Frost on the other. A short flue through part of 
a house would always, so far, be a saving, and then 
economy in fuel must be regulated in the setting of the 
boiler, so as to expose all the surface possible to the 
action of the fire, and keeping that heat about the 
boiler by regulating the dampers in the chimney. 
With respect to the second fact, it should be kept in 
mind, that provided a tank is close there can be nothing 
more genial to vegetation from the heat it diffuses, than 
from a round iron-pipe filled with water. Many sad 
accusations have been laid on the back of the old flues, 
to which they might have pleaded innocent with all pro¬ 
priety, for the blame rested on their worn-out state, the 
carelessness with which they were managed as to being 
kept clean, or the slovenliness of their construction, 
which led naturally to these bursts and discharges that 
were so pernicious to vegetation. Hot-water possesses 
a great advantage in heating a series of small houses 
and pits, and in heating any structure whatever, 
namely, the uniform temperature the water diffuses. 
In many cases, however, this is no advantage, as it is 
