259 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 29, 1861. 
its doing its work well, and being tlie cheapest any one could 
build. Mr. Lane heated a large house with it without the 
addition of hot-water pipes. I have yet to learn any of the dis¬ 
advantages with this plan. I still shall be most happy to see the 
plans carried out by the northern gardener alluded to. I enclose 
my name and present address, and shall bo happy to give any 
one willing to build on this plan any further information. 
In building all furnaces I strongly recommend a dead plate 
four or five inches wide in front of furnace-bars, it helps to coke 
the fresh coal, and keeps the door cool from having little or no 
draught near the door. A well-built flue might extend through 
the greenhouse, if it would be more convenient to carry it into 
the chimney at the farther end. My cold air entered not as 
Mr. Beaton mentions above the furnace, but just under the ash¬ 
pit. I certainly do not approve of having two chambers. The 
opening at the back of the ash-pit would draw in dust, and get 
clogged up with ashes. An opening might still be made above 
the iurnace to try which answered best. My furnace was about 
2 feet deep, l.foot wide, and 1 foot high.—G. B. Cullerne, 
18, Kensington Crescent. 
In the article on a “ New System of Heating Plant-houses,” in 
a recent Number, I find the following remark respecting Pol¬ 
maise:—“After all, it was at last tacitly acknowledged that the 
application of the principle was on a baseless foundation.” 
I know not who makes this tacit acknowledgment, but pray 
permit me to say that it is not made by all. I have had 
Polmaise at work from very early days. At the present time 
I have three stoves on that principle in full operation, and the 
longer I use them the better I like them. Only secure your 
stove against the escape of gas; let the cold and hot-air drains 
be large, falling and rising rapidly—the more so the better, and 
Polmaise cannot fail to work well. 
If it is desired to heat many houses by oue fire, I think that 
hot water has the advantage over Polmaise, because I doubt 
whether it is possible to make the hot air from one stove cir¬ 
culate through many houses as some might wish; but with two 
houses there is no difficulty at all, and, from my experience of 
Polmaise, I have no hesitation in saying that if I were about to 
build two vineries I should undoubtedly heat them on the 
Polmaise principle. 
And now oue word about “ The New System of Heating 
Plant-houses.” I do not see where this “new system” differs 
from the old system, in which hot air is introduced into many 
dwelling-houses by making the external air pass over a heated 
brick surface. In the case of plant-houses it seems to me to 
possess the disadvantages of Polmaise without its advantages. 
It is obvious that there is the same danger from escape of gas in 
both cases; while the new system does not secure that which 
is the great advantage of Polmaise—viz., the constant circulation 
of the air when every ventilator is closed.—W. 0. 
PLANTS AND POULTRY IN YORKSHIRE 
DURING THE PAST SEASON. 
As you have often requested that the pages of The Cottage 
Gardener may be furnished with news from many quarters, I 
enclose a few facts from the West Riding. Last summer, though 
so cold and wet, Geranium cuttings struck well in a shady place 
under Beech trees. They could get plenty of air but no sun. 
All the early cuttings of Verbenas, Heliotropes, &c., have 
done well and stood this winter. The cuttings taken later have 
damped off by scores. I took up a number of old Verbena 
plants, crammed them as tightly as possible into pots, did not 
put any drainage, placed them for a week or so in the shade, 
then housed them, and have not lost one. I took them up just 
before November last. 
Cucumbers did well with a gentle, dry bottom heat, parti¬ 
cularly Sion House—a most useful variety. I should be glad 
to hear if any other kind beats it. I have (January 21) some 
nice young plants in a frame, and they stand heat, cold, wet, 
or dryness better than any other variety I know. Of course, 
there are many kinds which I call “ summer Cucumbers ” 
superior. 
Seedling Dahlias flowered better than tubers, with the exception 
of Crocus, they all made leaves to perfection. In the same way 
Sweet Peas turned out—very luxuriant in growth, but with 
no flowers. Fuchsias bloomed well. Does that novelty Mrs. 
Storey always grow straggling ? She is a sad flirt with me, and 
will not keep at all within bounds. I must give her up, if 
any one will tell me of another (as pretty, and which will submit 
to proper training), to take her place. 
I have done with my poultry very much the same as TffE 
Cottage Gardener told us in last-week-but-one’s Number, 
during this very severe weather. I have given them (Brahma 
Pootras and Black Spanish mixed—not cross-bred though), 
Barley and bits from the house, soaked and given hot; and in 
return for which they lay eggs. Their house is roomy and very 
cold. They seldom came out during the very severe weather ; 
and the only illness among them is with an old lady who suffers 
from rheumatism, to cure which I give .a dozen peppercorns 
twice a-week. 
But to conclude. The great thing to have eggs in winter 
is to give plenty of warm food, and even warm water to drink, 
and if possible (during the time they are out) open the door of 
an outhouse for them to shelter in. I live on the top of a cold, 
fiat, clay tract of land about the middle of the West Riding.— 
Yorkshire. 
STOVE ORCHIDS. 
(Continued from page 239.) 
Vanilla planieolia. —This is the plant that produces the 
far-famed perfume named, par excellence, A r anilla. In its native 
country, the West Indies, it climbs up the tallest trees, adhering 
to the stem and branches like our common Ivy, only its roots 
are ten times longer and stronger. I have cultivated it by first 
planting a young plant in a pot in the usual compost, and 
then nailing the long straggling shoots to the back wall of the 
Orchid-house, and keeping the wall moist during the growing 
season by syringing it and the plant every day. It grew very 
fast and sent forth numerous roots, which clung very tenaciously 
to the moist wall. In a year or two the shoots reached the top 
of the wall; I then trained them down the rafters, where they 
soon flowered and produced large bunches of their perfume¬ 
bearing pods. The same method of culture I found practised 
several years ago at Sion House, and with still more success, 
because the walls of the large tropical-house there were much 
loftier than the house I had under my care. The flowers them¬ 
selves are large and handsome, of a yellowish-white colour, and 
the foliage is also large and of a rich dark green colour. I found 
the shade produced by the foliage was, during hot weather, 
beneficial to the plants underneath. As this plant is cheap 
enough it is worthy of culture, taking up no room and covering 
a naked wall with its large glossy leaves, and when old enough 
producing its fine flowers followed by clusters of its curious 
pods. 
JErides, Saccolabium and Vanda. —These plants have no 
pseudo-bulbs, but only a rather woody stem clothed more or less 
densely with leaves; and these stems generally, if not al ways, 
send out strong roots. Bearing these facts in mind, the cultivator 
will at once perceive that they require more moisture than such 
species as have those reservoirs of life which are technically 
named pseudo-bulbs. 
Notwithstanding this peculiarity,these Orchids require a season 
of growth, a season of rest and a season to flo-wer. The season of 
growth should be from May to August; the season of rest from 
September to February; andtli9 season of flowering from March 
to June. During the season of growth a strong heat should be kept 
up and the air kept saturated with moisture day and night. When 
the days begin to shorten fast, then induce a period of rest by 
reducing the heat and giving only just enough moisture to 
prevent the leaves from flagging. Growth will in consequence 
be in a great measure stopped, and the fluids condensed, and 
buds for flowering will be formed. Then, when the days begin 
to lengthen increa-e the heat, but with a very small amount of 
humidity. It is then the dry season of the tropics imitated ; and 
by following this, as it were, thrice-divided treatment, the plants 
will flourish and flower abundantly. Too often Orchids are 
treated as if they required all the year a uniform condition of 
heat and moisture. When so treated they, it is true, grow con¬ 
stantly, but rarely produce flowers, because they are not allowed 
a season to form and perfect their flower-buds ; and, besides that, 
they are kept too moist when the flowers are produced. Let the 
young cultivator then think what his plants require, and give 
them the treatment that is right, and I venturo to predict he 
