THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Maech 2, 1858. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
333 
Weather near London in 1857. 
D 
D 
MAECH 2—8. 1858. 
Rain in 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
M 
W 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Inches. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R.andS. 
Age. 
afterSun 
Year. 
2 
Tu 
Acacia armata. 
30.449—30.437 
50—41 
E. 
.01 
46 af 6 
39 af 5 
9afl0 
17 
12 
23 
61 
3 
W 
Acacia incarnata. 
30.299—30.328 
50—28 
E. 
— 
43 
.41 
10 27 
18 
12 
10 
62 
4 
Th 
Acacia rotundifolia. 
30.180—30.076 
50—23 
S.W. 
— 
41 
43 
11 43 
19 
11 
57 
63 
5 
F 
Acacia spectibilis. 
30.354—30.090 
49—38 
W. 
— 
39 
45 
morn. 
20 
11 
43 
64 
6 
S 
Acacia Drummondii. 
30.016—29.973 
54—30 
W • 
— 
37 
46 
0 59 
21 
11 
29 
65 
H 
1 
Sun 
3 Sunday in Lent. 
29.922—29.809 
53—33 
w. 
— 
35 
48 
2 10 
€ 
11 
15 
66 
8 
M 
Brachysema latifolia. 
29.556—29.470 
47—28 
w. 
.11 
33 
50 
3 14 
23 
11 
0 
67 
Meteorology op the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-one years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 48.9° and 32.5 a , respectively. The greatest heat, 60°, occurred on the 3rd, in 1846 ; and the lowest cold, 13®, 
on the 5th, in 1845. During the period 141 days were line, and on 76 rain fell. 
CRYSTAL PALACE.— February 22. 
The Crystal Palace is now as gay with Camellias, 
and forced flowers, as the private conservatory of a 
duchess ought to be, when next to her drawing-room. 
The Horticultural Society, with all its honours, has 
thus lost the credit of infusing a taste for the rare 
luxury of forced flowers to the nation. 
While all the large families in the country put as 
much stress on their forced flowers, in winter and 
spring, as they put on their flower gardens in summer, 
the trade of forced flowers would not pay in London. 
There was no blood in London to lead the fashion in 
winter flowers, and without a practice is really in the 
fashion, it is of very little commercial value. The 
Crystal Palace steps into the first rank of fashion, 
and before we can well settle the succession into the 
second and third generation, in the Horticultural 
Society, which ought to be at the head of affairs jlori- 
fanciful , the Palace people will have the nation soaked, 
as it were, in the highest branches and styles of British 
gardening. All fancies, ideas, and philosophy, may 
be likened to a warm bath, for by soaking a nation in 
a warm bath, each individual will imbibe as much of 
what is in the bath, as his or her pores and powers of 
absorption are capable of drawing from the fountain ; 
and, as every one’s powers are not alike, or ever likely 
to become so, we shall always have persons of the dif¬ 
ferent degrees of comparison in each rank of life— 
some good, some better, and some best. First, second, 
and third prizes ; first, second, and third-rate notions, 
abilities, taste, and judgment. Also, first, second, 
and third degrees in cant, and in criticism; and all 
this coming of that plunge in the warm bath of mixed 
elements. 
The highest branches of any art, are those branches 
which are the most difficult to reach up to—the top 
branches, and the leaders of the great side branches ; 
and if that be so, as we all know it is, forcing flowers 
and flower gardening are, most certainly, the farthest 
up, and farthest off, and most difficult to reach to, of 
all the branches of the horticultural tree in these 
islands, and, yet, to this very day, our Horticultural 
Society has never aspired high enough to reach but to 
a few of the lowest of the side branches, whilst those 
new comers at Sydenham made a bold start, at once, 
and reached all that could be seen, or foreseen, in their 
age and generation. Some parts of which I shall now 
endeavour to explain, according to the degree which 
nature, and the “force of circumstances,” have al¬ 
lowed me to reach to; 
The first requisite, for forcing flowers, is a good 
forcing house. All the experience and care in the 
world will never overcome the difficulties of an im¬ 
perfect forcing house. After seeing the effect of the 
forced flowers at the Crystal Palace, and after telling 
the authorities there, that my plan was to help them 
i to spread fhe taste, they had here displayed, as widely 
as the circulation of The Cottage Gardener, I was 
invited to a private view of all their secrets and ap¬ 
pliances. I saw everything, above, below, behind, 
and all round. There are worlds, and systems of 
worlds, about the Crystal Palace, which the inhabitants 
of our world, I mean our gardening world, have not 
yet dreamed of. They never buy a forced, or un¬ 
forced plant for the decoration of the Crystal Palace. 
All you see there, is the work of the establishment, 
and there is not a plant there in bloom, but what 
might be sent to an Exhibition. The arrangement of 
the pots, plants, and colours, and the “ getting up,” 
are. as duly considered, and as effectually carried out, 
as if the whole was intended solely for the use of 
Queen Victoria. 
We may congratulate the whole country on the 
fact, that a knowledge of these things did not spread, 
among our people, until the taste of our age was ripe 
on the point. Thousands, and tens of thousands, will 
have seen flowers “put together ” for the first time, 
at the Crystal Palace; and as the first idea, like first 
love, is, and always was, the strongest, the impression 
will never die out from those who can be impressed 
with this kind of beauty. Therefore, as the spring 
opens, all these thousands, and the rest of us, should 
flock to the Crystal Palace, to study and see the effect 
of decoration under difficulties, before the summer 
comes, when we shall be overwhelmed with flowers, 
and when the difficulty will be, to know how to find 
room enough for them. 
The forcing house for supplying the Crystal Palace 
is of the very best, and of the very simplest kind. It 
is 100 feet long; ranges nearly south and north; is 
twelve feet wide, outside measure, and eight feet high 
in the centre over the path, which runs along the 
middle of the house. The path is three feet wide, 
and there is a flat shelf of open woodwork on each 
side of the path. The shelves being as high as a man’s 
hip bone. So that neither male, or female, can sweep 
off any of the pots, on either side, when walking up 
the centre. “ A monstrous comfort, is it not ? ” 
The outside walls are a little higher than the shelves, | 
and a span-roof completes the house. There is a four- 
inch flow and return pipe under each shelf, and high 
enough from the ground, to allow the bottom venti¬ 
lation to enter below them. “ Cold currents ” are thus 
avoided, as the cold air must come in contact with the 
warm pipes, before getting to the plants. The house j 
is in two divisions ; the one next the boiler being the 
hottest, and the contrivance to confine the circulation 
to one end, when that is desirable, is most simple. A 
stop-cock is in the top pipe, and a pipe communicating 
between the top and bottom pipes, just behind the 
stop-cock, and between that cock and the boiler. 
In the end, which is the forcing division at present, 
the night heat is just 50° to 55°, but they allow a play 
of 40° degrees between the night and day temperatures; 
not with fire-heat, however, but by not giving air till 
the sun heats up to 90°, or, with a little top air, to 100°. i 
Ho. 492. Vol. XIX 
