339 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 2, 1858. 
circular junction at the farther end ; that part being, if 
anything, the highest. Under such conditions, there 
ought to be a rapid circulation in these three-inch 
pipes, and the heat at the extreme end, though not so 
much, will not be greatly below what it is at the boiler 
end. If there is not much heat there, you may rest 
assured that one of two things is the cause ; either the 
pipes are too much on a level with the boiler, and 
raising them would neutralize that evil; or air has got 
into the pipes, and cannot get out, either for want of a 
small gas-pipe in the extreme end, or the opening 
getting choked up, and that pipe rising higher than 
the water in the tanks. If these matters are seen to, 
you would probably get more heat than you now do ; in 
fact, all pipes so buried, do not at once give their full 
heating power to the atmosphere of the house. Well, 
then, supposing that on making your trial, and seeing 
that these matters are all right, you find that you can 
get a strong heat all the length of these path pipes, 
and that still you do not get quite as much heat as you 
would like in the tank farthest from the boiler, or even 
the third one; but, say the farthest, then all you have 
to do, is to borrow heat there from the pathway pipes, 
and, in this simple way; with a smith’s bit, bore a 
circular hole in the flow and return pipe, say one inch 
in diameter, and say twelve feet from the extreme end 
of the pipes ; into these openings fix the ends of one- 
inch lead pipes, and let the other ends communicate, 
one with the flow side, and the other with the return 
side of the tank. You might fix taps in these pipes, if 
you chose ; but a wooden plug inside would answer 
equally well. Dy-the-bye, now I think of it, one pipe 
from the flow-pipe in the pathway would do, if you 
still kept up the common circulation of the tanks with 
each other. If these pipes on the pathway heat well, 
you would be surprised to find how soon the heat, rising 
quickly through an inch pipe, would heat your tank. 
Other measures might be adopted, but these are 
those that seem to us to combine efficiency, and 
economy, without making much trouble, or changes 
with present arrangements. 
The obtaining more head room would be necessary 
for Pines in front, but several things must be thought 
of,before sinking the tank; and when about it, you 
might just as well sink it a foot or eighteen inches as 
six inches, as you can always raise your bed above it 
to what height you please. If the tanks are wrought 
iron, and not very heavy, the lowering would be at¬ 
tended with little risk ; but, if cast iron, and they have 
stood where they are for ten years, and are at all rusty, 
there would be considerable risk in moving them. 
Unless for young Pines, we do not see you could do much 
as the tanks are, for we do not know how much space 
you have above them to the glass. Taking all things 
into consideration, the nicety with which such tanks 
must be fixed, I believe there would, ultimately, be less 
trouble in raising the two walls of the house a foot, or 
fifteen inches in height; and, if the addition in front 
was glass, it would be all the better. Even if the front 
wall was raised one foot, without touching the back 
one, you would have all that more room, by sacrificing 
some five inches of length of rafter. The sinking inside 
would make the least show of work, and there would 
be no danger, if the tank was wrought iron, but more 
care would be required otherwise. If you decide on 
doing so, I would have the back wall at the path, so as 
to make that likewise a pier for the tank support. 
Could you thus bring the tank more into the middle of 
the house, instead of the front side, you would at once 
obtain more head-room and convenience, whilst the 
spaces beneath will be useful for many purposes. Try 
the heating first. Eirst, lower the water; if that does not 
do, widen the connecting sluices; if that is not sufficient, 
borrow from the pipes in the pathway, at least from 
the flow-pipe: the last resorts should be, changing the 
position of the boiler, or taking pipes through the tank. 
ITad I such a system of heating to put up, and where a 
little heat in all the departments would be no dis¬ 
advantage, instead of connecting these wide tanks as 
now, I would take a four-inch pipe round the whole ; 
and that pipe to be from a foot to eighteen inches below 
the level of the tank. This pipe on the north side 
should be the flow-pipe, that on the south side the 
return-pipe. A pipe, from one inch and a half to two 
inches in diameter, should connect this flow and return 
pipe with each tank at pleasure ; and any tank on the 
range could be heated, and to any desired degree, and 
woidd not at all influence its neighbour. If there is a 
good heat in the pipes under the pathway now, the 
farthest division from the boiler (if separated from the 
rest) might thus be heated even at present. I have thus 
done what has suggested itself to me, in the circum¬ 
stances. I shall be glad if any better plan be adduced, 
and will be glad to hear of what you have done, and the 
results. R. Fish. 
LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING, AND PRINCE’S 
FEATHER. 
I hope you will not think me presumptuous, in still further 
advocating the above flowers. But, as I last year adopted 
the flower, nearly for the same purpose as Mr. Beaton has 
mentioned in his paper of February 16, I quite coincide with 
Mr. Beaton, in thinking, that although it is an old kind of 
hardy annual, yet it is one that is still worth our notice; for few 
equal it in figure, in graceful habit, duration of flowering, and 
easy culture. 
One thing I find necessary. If on a border running east 
and west, it should be on the north side, as the heads of the 
flowers all incline to the south. I had it on both, as a back 
ribbon row, last year, and it was admired by all who saw it. 
As Mr. Beaton remarked, this will be much stronger if 
encouraged with a little manure, and new loam put into 
a small trench. I had my plants from fourteen to fifteen 
inches apart; but, I must say, I rather went astray from 
Nature’s habits, a course I generally incline to aid ; but there 
is excuse sometimes for fancies. When the plants were well 
established, I pruned off all the side branches, leaving them 
like little standards, with the view of having conspicuous large 
heads. Some of the main flowers were three feet long, and 
broad in proportion. After that treatment, they threw off a 
mass of side flowers all round from the top, and drooped down 
gracefully; and, as you observe, they will stand even a portion 
of frost without injury. 
I have some thoughts, in another season, to plant some beds 
with a portion of plants, treated as I have described above, thinly , 
and to have some dwarf variety of flower, of a different shade, 
below. I lifted a few of the said plants, reduced them to a 
small compass, and potted them into small pots, introduced 
some of the different colours of them among the plants in 
greenhouse-stages, and for decoration among the plants in 
entrance-hall; I found them to answer admirably, and last 
exceedingly long. 
Moreover, I find they have no equal, say for setting off 
cut flowers in a vase, or for the centre of a dinner table. Use 
the medium-size flower branches, and introduce them so as to 
allow each head of flower to hang down separately.—W m. 
Melville, Dalmeney Park. 
The Death oe the Water Lily. — I am always in hope 
of seeing one of these beautiful Lilies in the act of dying; it 
is so lovely a flow r er-death—there is no pain in it. When the 
seed ripens in the Lily-cup, and her bloom is over, she does 
not cast her seeds to the winds, and fade, wither, and decay, 
like earth-flowers ; but she slowly turns upon her pale face, 
and rests it upon the water, while the seeds sink in a golden 
shower back to the parent stem, far beneath the water. Thus 
they never leave their parent loch, but flower there for ever. 
—Erick Mackenzie. 
