THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, May 26, 1857. 
121 
IRON CEMENT FOR PIPING. —PREVENTING 
A CISTERN OVERFLOWING. 
In answer to the request of “Another Experimentalist ” 
I beg to forward the receipt for making iron cement. 
Take I cwt. of cast-iron borings, 3 ozs. of sal ammoniac 
powdered fine, and 1 oz. of flowers of sulphur. Mix them 
all together and damp them with water; put the mixture on 
a slate, board, or anything else convenient; pat it together 
as compactly as possible, and leave it to heat until the hand 
can be held on it, but not so as to turn the colour of the 
cement. When it has thus heated enough, which will be in 
about a quarter of an hour, put it in a vessel, and just cover 
it with water, from which it must be pressed out, as required, 
as dry as possible ; but if it is left out of the water an hour 
and a half, or two hours, it will spoil. 
Place the joints as required. For socket-pipes drive in 
about two inches and a half of spun yarn or stranded rope, 
well parged with red and wdiite lead. For flange-pipes place 
a ring made of quarter-inch iron, wrapped smoothly with spun 
yarn, and parged with red and white lead, round the bore of 
the pipe between the flanges, so that the pins will all draw 
up tight; then in each case drive in the cement with a calk¬ 
ing tool of the size of your joint, which any smith will make, 
taking care not to put in too much at a time before driving, 
and do not spare the hammer; also fill the joint. On no 
account use the cement after it has turned red, as it is then 
worse than useless. 
Another correspondent inquires how to prevent the water 
from flowing over his cistern. If he uses a steam-pipe of 
f-inch iron tube, tapped in the nearest part of his return-pipe 
to the cistern, and from thence conducted over the side of 
the cistern, and allowed to dip down into it for six or eight 
inches, he will find that will effectually remedy it. It does not 
matter if the pipe dips into the water; but if one of the 
“ Improved Coil Boilers ” is used there will be little incon¬ 
venience that way, as the w T ater flows through quicker. 
The heat is got up in half the time, and the cost of the 
boiler is less than half, with a saving of fifty per cent, in 
fuel.—A n Experimentalist. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
YELLOW DOG’S-TOOTH VIOLET CULTURE. 
“I have forwarded to you a box containing a few 
plants of Sedum acre aureum. I have also inclosed a few 
blooms of the Erythronium lanceolatum , or yellow Dog’s- 
tooth Violet, a plant which I seldom see in any collection. 
I have a large bed of it full in bloom, which creates a fine 
effect. It delights in sandy peat and leaf mould in equal 
proportions. It should be planted four or five inches deep, 
and not be disturbed, as my bed has not been shifted for 
twenty years.”—G. T. F., Leek. 
[The yellow tops of the shoots were blanched white by 
the time they reached us, and the green parts disappeared 
altogether; still we hope we may be able to save a little of it, 
as it must be a most welcome plant for the spring beds. 
The moss was too damp, and it got heated by some means. 
Many thanks for it. It is, indeed, very curious that yellow 
Erythronium , or Dog’s-tooth Violet, is so scarce that one 
seldom sees it, although it increases faster than the other. 
However, it may thus be accounted for. This kind, like 
some Oxalises, Bowiei for instance, makes long root-like 
shoots, or feelers, or fang roots ( surculi in botany), at the 
ends of which the new bulbs or tubers are formed. Now, 
when a “ root ” of this habit is planted on a deep bed or 
border, the surculi go right down to the bottom, if it were ten 
feet deep, in a very few years, and the “ root ” cannot flower 
from below a certain depth; therefore it does not flower 
at all after the first two or three years: it buries itself 
alive, and is dead and gone, nobody knowing how. Were 
it not for this, which was not known at the time, every 
garden in the kingdom would have a large autumn bed of 
Oxalis Boiviei , and the American or yellow Dog’s-tooth 
Violet would be more common than the other among spring- 
flowers. Now, let us hope the true system will be seized on 
by all lovers of spring flowers. 
The proper depth and the right soil for a bed are given 
by our correspondent, and his rule of never disturbing the 
bed is imperative. Our friend should put himself in 
correspondence with a London nurseryman to bring out his 
Sedum acre aureum just as if it were a new plant from the 
north of Tartary. It ought to be made as popular as the 
Golden Chain , which very few gardeners knew ten years 
since, although it is one of the oldest of all Geraniums from 
sports; or like the variegated Mint, which was hardly known 
as a flower-garden plant this time last year. But the 
present name would condemn the best Sedum in the world: 
it smells so much of bread and butter, as Byron once said 
of another kind of beauty; but call it the “Golden 
Stonecrop,” and all the world will rejoice in it after- paying 
the piper.] 
WHITE SAXIFRAGE. 
“ Mr. D. Beaton is afraid the double white Saxifrage is 
lost. At page 72 he says no one sees it now-a-days. I think 
I can find it. I saw it last summer in the garden of Mr. 
T. Dennis, gardener, Mirfield, where there is the best col¬ 
lection of old hardy herbaceous plants I remember to have 
seen. It is no new collection, as I have known it for thirty 
years, and many rare plants may be found there. Mr. 
Beaton rarely mentions one but what Mr. Dennis has. If 
Mr. Beaton wishes to have the Saxifrage I will try to get 
it for him. Should Mr. Dennis be run out I will get 
it before the end of the summer, as I can find' it in two 
more places. I inclose you some Sedum, to ask if it is the 
same as you got from ‘ G. T. F., Leek.' The cottagers here 
call it £ Golden Moss.’ [It is the same.] I have seen beds 
a yard across, and beautiful it is; but you must mind to 
keep the poultry from it, or they will soon eat it. 
“ Will Mr. Beaton have the kindness to tell me the name 
of a plant he mentioned some time since? It is like Saxi- 
fraga sarmentosa, with small red flowers upon every joint. 
I have never seen it, and should like to have it to hang in 
my cottage window with the above Saxifrage, which is en¬ 
deared to me by old recollections of my youth. I was several 
years in getting it, not knowing the nahie, but at last I got 
it, and wish to keep it.”— Rustic Robin. 
[Mr. Beaton cannot call to mind a trailing plant “ like 
Saxifraga sarmentosa with small red flowers upon every 
joint.” Can you refer to the page where it is mentioned? 
He thinks Eisandra prostrata must he the plant, but the 
small flowers are yellow, and not red; at all events, Disandra 
is the best match we know of for the Saxifrage. The double 
white Saxifraga granulata should be foremost among the 
late spring flowers, as it was in our school-going days. If 
you can send it to Mr. Beaton you would have a hand in 
establishing its character with the present generation. 
Could you not prevail on your friend, Mr. Dennis, to write 
out a list of his herbaceous plants, or of the more rare and 
old-fashioned kinds, for The Cottage Gardener?] 
RAISING FLOWER SEEDLINGS. 
“ I have sown some seeds of AcrocUnium roseum, a 
kind of giant Rodanthe. The seedlings are come up well 
out of the earth, in which they were sown in a pot. 
Having nothing beyond a window for growing plants or 
seeds, pray be kind enough to tell me how I am to treat 
them now T . They have been raised in a small pot, with a 
small tumbler glass inverted over the mouth of the pot. I 
tilt the glass to give air, which I thought could not be wrong, 
as I feel it so essential to my own comfort. 
“ I have also some seeds of Browallia elata and Anomatheca 
amenta, Schizopetalon , Clinionia, Microsperma Bartonioides, 
Thunhergia , Scypanthus, and Sahhatia campestris, all of 
which are shy in coming to light. All are sown in light, 
sandy soil, in which fibrous peat is mixed, all in pots, with 
tumbler glasses over, in my window. There is a fire in the 
room, and always plenty of air from an open door. They 
do not appear, but I have so much confidence in the person 
from whom I had the seeds that I am sure quality cannot 
be the reason of their non-appearance. They have been 
sown more than twenty days. 
“ But, above all, pray tell me what to do with Microsperma 
