THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, May 12, 1857. 
87 
If we had a superabundance of boxes containing old comb we 
would let them have one to begin with. Guide comb we 
place in the honey box only, taking care to place it as straight 
and parallel with the bars as possible. 
“ I am not clear about the * dip ’ or inclination question.” 
—R. Eaglesham.] 
CULTURE OF RICHARDIA JETHIOPICA, OR 
ARUM LILY. 
“I have some very fine plants of the Arum Lily, which 
have produced six blooms each this year. What is best to 
do with them ? I have seen them planted out and potted in 
the latter part of the summer. Do you advise me to do so ? 
“In reading your valuable paper I have been a little sur¬ 
prised at not seeing Pansies recommended for filling flower¬ 
beds in spring. I have a bed or two every season of some 
good old sorts, and they really look quite cheerful and 
very pretty.”—W. 
[There are two distinct methods which you may follow 
out with the “ Arum Lilies,” or Callas, or Bichardias, as they 
are sometimes called: you can keep them in the pots till 
they ripen the leaves some time in the summer, and then 
let them go to rest. Once you have got them at perfect rest 
you may keep them dozing for ten months if you choose to 
do so; or you may plant them out in rich ground, after- 
hardening them, towards the end of May; but then they 
will go to rest after ripening the leaves, or before ripening 
them if they experience a sudden check, and either way 
they will resume their growth naturally in October, because 
they are in moist ground. If you water them in pots in 
October they will start into growth ; but if you keep them 
dry in October and on till the new year they will not offer 
to start. Now, weigh the two modes in your mind’s eye, 
I and see what are the advantages or disadvantages each pos¬ 
sesses* You say you have some very fine plants, which 
produced six blooms each this season, but you will not see 
their blooms again till 1858; while our Arum Lilies blow 
twice every year of our lives—in the spring and in the 
autumn; but yours will not blow this autumn most cer¬ 
tainly. Ours will, however; and if you take a leaf out of 
our book your Arum Lilies will do as ours have done for 
ever so long. Keep one half of your plants in the pots, and 
keep the pots dry till this time next year, or at least to the 
end of March, then water them, but keep them cool, and 
they will not rest till the end of the following autumn. 
After that one half of your Arums will be beginning to 
grow when the other half are at their nods, and when the 
one is in full growth the other is as fast asleep as a 
badger in winter. Shake them out of the old soil every 
time they begin to grow, both from the open ground and in 
pots, and plant the large roots only for flowering; the 
small and half-small ones will begin growing at different 
times, and by taking advantage of the difference with a 
large Stock one might have Arum Lilies in bloom every 
month in the whole year. We ourselves have seen them do 
so as comfortably as in the spring. 
We hope to be able to point out some Pansies this season 
which bloom from May to October, and which make beauti¬ 
ful flower-beds or edgings.] 
HEATING A PIT. 
“ The pit is chiefly for growing plants for the flower gar¬ 
den, and to grow Melons. In summer there will be a par¬ 
tition, so as to have either only the one part or all of the pit 
heated at once. Of course there must be stop-taps in the 
pipes. I want to know what pipes would be required for 
top and bottom heat.”—A Constant Reader. 
[It is always best to be precise. We know nothing of the 
size of your pit. It may be six feet, or nine feet, or twelve 
feet in width, and a length of six lights or sixty. Presuming 
it is moderate in size we would recommend Thomson’s 
amateur’s retort boiler, or one of Rogers’ conical boilers. If 
the pit has a great many lights, then Weeks’ tubular boiler, 
or a triple retort of Thomson’s. It is difficult to combine 
the cheapest and the best. For bedding plants in a pit 
nothing is cheaper and better than a small flue. We will 
venture further, and say that nothing will beat it for a small 
place. With a strong flue below a bed we have also grown 
splendid Melons. We could likewise have a flue so that it 
could traverse the whole length of the nit. and return or go 
through only a part of it at pleasure; DUt mere is more 
trouble with it, though we think not more expense, nor so 
much as with pipes, and these, no doubt, will be preferred. 
If the pit is about six feet in width, and you want early 
Melons, you would require two four-inch pipes above, and 
two three-inch pipes below. If you mean to have several 
divisions, fine taps for top and bottom, and to have the cir¬ 
culation of each department perfect in itself, it will cost no 
little money. The cheapest plan, where the pit is long and ; 
in many divisions, would be to place the border at one end, I 
and always heat a division there first, and have the circula¬ 
tion there perfect, top and bottom. We would connect this 
with the next division with one-inch lead pipes, and with 
good common beer-taps fixed in them to turn at pleasure, 
which would avoid the expense of boxes and patent plugs. 
We have some pits heated by hot water, and each of these 
pits is in several divisions ; but we have no taps at all, so that 
we must heat one pit throughout at a time, having the power 
of shutting it off from the other at pleasure. We may lose a 
little heat at times by heating one range at once ; but then, < 
if we do not at once have things right throughout that require ! 
the same treatment, that is easily remedied by giving more j 
air in one division than another. At a little loss of heat we j 
thus save a deal of bother. Where top and bottom heat j 
are always required the best plan is to make the top pipes | 
flow-pipes, and bring them under the bed back again as ■ 
return-pipes. If our correspondent has only two divisions he 
had better have his border in the centre, and then by taking 
the main flow-pipe into an open cistern he can take pipes 
for top heat and bottom heat right and left from that cistern 
at pleasure. As the expense will only be a little more he 
may prefer being able to give bottom heat or top heat at 
pleasure. For instance, in a sunny day, and if the bottom 
heat was rather defective, the top heat might be shut off 
altogether for some hours. If pipes are used for bottom 
heat they should be surrounded with open rubble, broken 
bricks, &c. Many answers have been given to kindred 
inquiries.] -- 
ANGLE PROPER FOR A GREENHOUSE ROOF. 
“ I am building a greenhouse eleven feet long, seven feet 
six inches high at the back, and five feet high at the front. 
Do you think that a sufficient slant for the roof ? I bought 
the book called ‘ Greenhouses for the Many,’ which tells me 
80° is a good angle. Now, I do not understand that, so 
oblige me by an answer.”— An Amateur Florist. 
[You say nothing of the width of your house ; but, sup¬ 
posing it to be ten or twelve feet, we should prefer eight 
feet high at back. In a previous volume we showed how 
the French and English calculated angles differently—the 
one coming from the base of the quadrant, and the other 
from the perpendicular line. Thus 30° with the French 
would be 60° with us. The less the width of your house 
the less height you will require to go in order to secure a 
certain angle of inclination. Thus, supposing you had a 
house twelve feet wide, and wished a roof at 45°, you must 
have your back wall twelve feet higher than the front one. 
If your house is twelve feet wide, and the back wall three 
feet higher than the front one, then the angle of your roof 
will be about 70°, or a little steeper than a garden frame, 
3 teep enough to throw off water. If your house is only nine 
feet wide your roof will be steeper still, about 70°. To find 
the angle with a quadrant in a moment fix a string and 
weight in the angle of the quadrant, the string long 
enough to reach beyond the marked quadrature ; place that, 
side of the quadrant that has !J0° in the corner of the 
quadrature against the real or supposed line of your roof, 
and the plummet will hang against the number in the 
quadrature that will show the angle of inclination. For 
greenhouses with upright glass in front from 55° to 75° 
are very good inclinations. The angle of a garden frame 
is about 80°. Our continental friends calculate mostly 
from the other side of the quadrant that begins with 
1° in the corner, and therefore with them a frame would 
have an inclination of 10°, and a greenhouse at 30° would 
be the same inclination as one of 60° with us. The context 
shows generally which mode is adopted.] 
