THE COTTAGE GARDENEE AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 15, 1857. 
there not being one in the whole plan, and the substitution of 
wooden plugs. . . . , 
“ The water enters from the boiler into the box or cistern ; 
and from thence it may be directed into greenhouse, pit, or 
vinery at pleasure by means of the said plugs. Tim pip es 
below ground are the return-pipes to boiler; and the cisterns 
have lids for steaming the house. 
“ Should you wish to turn the water off the greenhouse, loi 
instance, you then fix a plug in cistern No. 1, and another 
one in the pipe leading from the box, and marked No. 1. 
In the vinery, you would do the same with cistern IS o. -, 
and pipe No. 2; and the pit, likewise, with cistern No. 3, 
i and pipe No. 3. . ...... 
“The object, of course, in fixing two plugs is to stop the 
back water in the return-pipes.”—A rthur CORNELL, Fskdale 
House, Langholm. 
[We are very much obliged for your interesting letter, and 
for the well-drawn plan with which it is accompanied, and 
which we would have been glad to engrave, but for the quan¬ 
tity of matter waiting for insertion in our columns; and also 
because we fail to discover anything in the plan decisively 
new ; though we feel convinced it is everything in the way ol 
elFect and simplicity you represent it to be. More than twenty 
years ago we had the management of a series of houses and 
pits—in which stove plants, greenhouse plants, Cucumbers, 
Melons, Strawberries, Dwarf Kidney Beans, Pines, and bedding 
plants were grown—all heated from a main cistern such as 
yours, and supplied with wooden plugs instead of valves ; and 
nothing could answer better. We just found that a little 
management of the plugs was necessary, as the heating pipes 
in the different divisions, being on different levels, when all 
the holes were open alike, the flow was stronger in those 
nearly on a level with the cistern, than in those considerably 
below it. A little notching and regulating of the plugs made 
that all right. In such cisterns we like plugs just as well as 
the finest-made brass valves ; but, of course, they are not so 
neat and artistic. To give our readers an idea of your simple 
plan—and not more simple than effective—we should like to 
state that the vinery and greenhouse are joined together, the 
former being double the size or so of the latter, and having a 
pit iu its centre, which can be heated separately if desired. 
I The doorway into the vinery is not from the outside, but from 
nearly the middle of the division, between it and the green¬ 
house. The front entrance into the greenhouse is at the point 
where the greenhouse and vinery meet; and opposite to it is 
another doorway, leading into the sheds behind. 
The mode of heating is adapted to these doorways and 
paths. The boiler is placed in the shed near the greenhouse 
end of the vinery. A flow-pipe leads into the cistern inside 
the vinery. From that cistern, No. 1 pipe passes through 
the division into the greenhouse ; goes below the ground at 
the pathway, if necessary; goes round the house as a single 
pipe until it comes to the front, where it is doubled; placed 
horizontal to each other, as Mr. Hume does ; and ending 
close to the doorway in an open cistern. No. 1, from which 
the return-pipe proceeds, and which can be easily plugged 
likewiso when desirable. 
No. 2 pipe, furnished with its plug, goes along the back 
and round the end of the vinery, being doubled, likewise, along 
the front, terminating in a cistern close to the end wall; and 
with that wall and the doorway separating it from the cistern, 
or reservoir, in the greenhouse. This, of course, has pipe and 
plug No. 2 for return. No. 3 pipe goes round the pit, inside 
the vinery, terminating in a cistern (No. 3), just outside the 
wall of the pit, and which can be plugged also when deemed 
advisable. The return-pipe, with which these 1, 2, 3 cisterns, 
or reservoirs, at the end of the respective fiow r -pipes are con¬ 
nected, lies along beneath the pathway, between the two 
doorways in the greenhouse; the short pieces from the 
cistern to it are also under ground, so as not to interfere at 
all with walking there, or going round the vinery. It is not 
said whether that return-pipe is covered, or merely grated 
over. We should prefer the latter. Our readers will per¬ 
ceive, then, an open cistern at the end of the flow-pipes in 
each house, and the means of plugging up the return-pipe 
there, to stop the back water in the return-pipes, are dis¬ 
tinctive features ; but under such an arrangement, though 
[ this plugging of the return-pipes will be useful, yet, prac¬ 
tically, we do not place great importance upon it; as, pro¬ 
vided there is no flow, there will be no very great trouble 
with returns. Still, when, as in the present case, it is so easily 
managed, it ought to be done. This is just one other proof 
how a very simple system may be varied to suit circumstances.] 
LATE GRAPES FOR A VINERY. 
“ I am about planting a new vinery for a late crop to hang 
on till March. My aim is, to have Grapes all the year round ; 
and I shall feel obliged to you for a little of your advice 
respecting the sorts which will hang longest. I have got 
seven hglits, so that I shall plant seven Vines ; and I should 
like to have more than one colour. I have a house I have 
just shut up, to begin forcing with five fights ; and I am de¬ 
ficient of one Vine, which I want to make good with one that 
will come in early. I have one Black Hamburgh, one Hutch 
Sweetwater, one Green Frontignan, and one Muscat of Alex¬ 
andria at the hottest end. I am thinking of planting either 
a Golden Hamburgh or a Black Champion. 
“ I have a house with five fights, and all Black Hamburghs, 
with some very good Grapes on now ; and I am in hopes of 
having some of them hang till Christmas. So that I think, 
with my three houses I shall be able to have a succession all 
the year. I have made my borders for my new houses very 
shallow.”—T. W. H. 
[You cannot do better than plant Golden Hamburgh; 
though, if you want curliness, we should almost prefer the 
Royal Muscadine. 
You ask us advice; but we hardly know on what point to 
give it. Your commencing to force just now will hardly 
give you Grapes all the year round, even should you have a 
late house, the Grapes in which will hang till March. Your 
success with both the early house and the late house will con¬ 
sist much in protecting your borders, if outside, so as to keep 
them dry, and not too cold. For a late house, the atmosphere 
cannot be kept too dry after the fruit is swelled and ripe. 
The latter will keep better, if ripe, or nearly so, by the middle 
of October. 
For this late house we would recommend three Muscat of 
Alexandria, and three of West’s St. Peter, and one Barba- 
rossa. We would have had more of the latter, but we do not 
find it to be a fertile bearer. . If Muscats arc desirable, you 
might have four of them instead. Nothing hangs better; 
and, for a late house, they would come into bloom when the 
summer beat would be nearly at its height.] 
ORNAMENTAL BRITISH PLANTS. 
“ I feel convinced many of our most beautiful British plants 
are being almost overlooked. With a little of the hybridist’s 
skill, what a world of beauty would be unfolded in the Fox¬ 
glove ! What a substance to begin with! Smooth as pearl, 
perfect hardiness of constitution! What a foliage, and wfiat 
noble spikes! It will grow almost anywhere. Rich and 
poor may have plants in thousands. They aro true Britons, 
and deserve a better position than is generally bestowed upon 
them—some out-of-the-way comer. 
“ There has been ‘ war among the Roses;’ and it is high 
time'there was a revolution amongst our native flowers. Here 
we are running ourselves to needless expense in fostering an 
army of foreigners, while we have hosts of our own languishing 
for employment in the woods and wilds. They want beating 
up. English flowers, like English men, will present a goodly 
array; and I have no doubt, with a little drilling, they will 
form a better division, and return more heroes, than the floral 
world is at this time aware of. 
“Would not the variegated Hr aba make the very best of 
all dw'arf edgings for small beds or borders ? You would have 
beautiful white flowers in spring ; then, cut with the shears, 
after blooming, to the requisite width—it looks so beautiful 
throughout the winter. 
“ Would the variegated Lychnis be of any service ? I found 
it growing in one of our woods. The variegation has been 
most beautiful all through the summer, and seems constant. 
“ I have, also, a prettily-variegated Plantago lanceolata, 
