195 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 1 , 1861. 
elevation; and fig. 4, a sectional plan through x, y, of a chimney 
top constructed according to this invention. In each of the 
above-mentioned figures the same letters of reference indicate 
like parts. 
a, A, A, are the spaces between the vertical ribs or T-pieces 
fixed round the chimney top, into which the w'ind enters on 
striking the chimney, and its egress is prevented by the T-pieces 
B, b, the overhanging edges c, c, confining the wind, and forcing 
it to travel upwards as shown by the arrows, into the interior of 
the chimney P. The chimney may be made octagonal, round, 
or any other suitable shape or form, but the inventor prefers 
an octagonal shape as shown in the drawings. 
The conical-shaped piece D immediately above the T-pieces, 
serves as a guide for the wind accumulated by the T-pieces 
underneath, and the upper surface of the said conical piece is 
divided by vertical partitions N, N, which serve also as supports 
to the upper part of the chimney top, and form a series of 
chambers or wind-accumulators, L, L, L ; there are four chambers 
or accumulators in the drawing, but the inventor does not 
confine himself to that or any number. These wind-accumu¬ 
lators, L, i, have communications with the chimney, and the 
wind passing through them assists to make an upward current 
therein. The two rings or short tubes, E and E, serve to direct 
and divide any downward currents which are thus separated and 
divided as to offer little, if any, resistance to the upward currents 
of air. 
The patentee thinks that this invention can also be used for 
ventilating workshops, manufactories, public or other buildings, 
or edifices, as he believes the upward current in the chimney or 
ventilator would draw up and remove all foul or vitiated air that 
accumulated at the roof or ceiling, and keep up a circulation of 
air in the building room, or apartment. 
HYMENOCALLIS LITOEALIS AND ISMENE 
CALATHINUM. 
Will Mr. Beaton tell me what is the matter with my bulb of 
Hymenocallis litoralis, and what lean do to cure it? It has 
been kept in a cool greenhouse, and the frost ha» not touched it; 
yet the ends of all the leaves have become flaccid, as if frost¬ 
bitten, and are decaying from the points down. I imported the 
bulb from M. Tan Houtte last autumn, and potted it at once in 
rotten turf with a little sand and well drained. 
In Mr. Beaton’s articles on bulbs some years ago l(o me the 
most interesting series of papers you have ever published) he 
places this one among the hardy plants, but M. Van Houtte in 
his catalogue says it should be placed in the stove in winter. Do 
they, perhaps, speak of two varieties ? 
lsmene calathinum. This, according to Mr. Beaton, is half- 
hardy, but Yan Houtte says it should be plunged in the open 
ground in summer, and taken to the stove towards the end of 
September, where it will soon show its flowers in all their beauty. 
Mine are still quite dry and in the greenhouse. Am I right ? 
How is it that prizes are never offered for these beautiful 
flowers ? I am sure that if this were done they would form a 
most interesting part of our exhibitions.—W. B. S. 
[Mr. Beaton says that he never saw Hymenocallis litoralis, or 
wrote a word about it. He knows M. Yan Houtte very well, 
but Mr. Beaton never knew r anyone who had ever seen or grown 
the bulb which Jacquin called Pancratium litoralis, and which 
ought to be the Hymenocallis litoralis of Yan Houtte. The only 
H. litoralis that was ever known and figured in England is a halt- 
liardy Mexican swamp bulb referable to Hymenocallis adnata. 
It is figured in tlie twenty-first volume of the “ Botanical 
Magazine,” 825, as a var. of Pancratium Dryandri. Again, the 
same bulb is figured in the “ Botanical Magazine,” vol. xliv., 
fig. 1879, under the name of Pancratium distichum ; and a 
third time the same bulb gets a place in the same work under 
a fresh name—acutifolia, “ Botanical Magazine,” vol. liii., 
fig. 2621. It is the Pancratium acutifolium of Sweet’s “ Hortus 
Britannicus.” And in the eleventh volume of the “Botanical 
Register,” fig. 940, the same bulb is called Pancratium mex- 
icanurn, and that one bulb under five or more names in our best 
works on British botany, is just as hardy in England as the 
Amaryllis belladonna, but it should stand in a cistern of water 
from the end of May to September. What Yan Houtte’s Hyme¬ 
nocallis litoralis may be Mr. Beaton cannot tell, or what 
Jacquin’s litoralis may have been it is now too late to inquire for 
any practical use. Some of the Mexican Hymenocallises require 
stove heat, and all of them from farther south will not do out 
of the stove. Jacquin said positively his litoralis was from the 
island Tierra Bomba, near Carthagena, in latitude 11° north ; 
but his assertion was flatly disproved in English nurseries—as 
at Lee’s, Hammersmith, and Loddiges’, at Hackney, where 
Jacquin’s plant proved to be the samo as Pancratium mexicanum, 
introduced direct from Mexico in 1816, and again in 1830. 
Practically, therefore, there is no Hymenocallis litoralis in 
existence. Practically, also, these Hymenocallises are amongst 
the most easy bulbs to cultivate. The only secret is to give 
them very strong loam and immersion in summer, or at least 
saucers'under the pots, to be kept constantly full of water in 
summer ; and those of them, like the present subject, which do 
not like greenhouse temperature in winter, must be accommodated 
with stove heat, for there is very little reliance to be placed on 
their names ihany books, or nurseries in Europe. They come 
closer in their looks and affinities than the varieties of the 
Polyanthus Narcissus, which they represent in the tropics. 
lsmene calathinum. If our friend M. Yan Houtte has really 
recommended this bulb to be grown in a stove in winter, as you 
ray he did, our friend does not know' this lsmene at all, for it 
never grows in the winter at all, no matter what house or part 
of the w r orld you have it in. Who has seen a pot Hyacinth 
growing away in June and July may have seen some kind of 
lsmene growing in a stove at Christmas, but no one else ever did. 
But how r long has your calathinum been “still quite dry ? ’’ ours 
are hardly dry yet. We set out ours, or pot them in April, and 
take them up' in October, exactly as we do Potatoes, and the 
