THE COTTAGE GARDENER AN]) COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 31, 1850. 
137 
say iu forty-foet; was joined there by a semicircular joint to 
the return-pipe, and that declined as much, or an inch more, to 
the other end, and the pipes were placed side by side, we are quite 
sure the two pipes would be more equally heated than by placing 
them one above each other, whatever the distance between them. 
5. Any boiler will burn coke well, The three best we think 
would be, a conical one of Rogers’s ; a tubular one of Weeks’s, 
or Ormson’s ; and a retort of Thompson’s. The two first should 
be fed from the top. After all, more depends on the stoker, and 
the regulating of tho damper, furnace, and ashpit door, than the 
mere form of tho boiler. What exposes most surface to the fire 
is generally best.] 
ACCLIMATISING PLANTS. 
“ Having read in your valuable journal, some weeks past, a 
very interesting account of the acclimatising our ratlier-tender j 
greenhouse plants in the open air, throughout the winter, in tho 
exposed situation of Forest Hill, at Mr. Mongredien’s garden, I 
shall feel particularly grateful for some hints on this subject; as 
I am anxious for want of indoor space, and having only a very 
small greenhouse to store away, during the winter, all my rare 
varieties of Camellias and Neriums. My garden has a north-west 
aspect. Could these plants, by being sunk in their pots now in 
tho garden, be able to withstand our severe frosts near town 
without any protection ? [No, not in pots.] I sadly fear not; 
but should like to know how that result has been attained at 
Forest Hill in a very exposed north aspect, which Mr. Beaton, I 
think, compares to the Calton Hill in Edinburgh. I shall feel 
greatly indebted for any rules for obtaining such happy results, as 
my plants are stifled up eight months in the year indoors, fearing 
to turn them out until the end of May. May I also trouble you 
to inform me when Azalea Indioa should be put out ? [When 
done blooming.] And should it be placed in the shade like 
Camellias?” [Yes,for two months.]— An Old Subsciiibee. 
[There is not such a thing as acclimatising plants. If the 
nature of a plant is not suited to our climate, all the ingenuity of 
man will never alter it to the end of time. Our fathers kept 
plants under glass, which we find hardy enough now; and we 
protect some plants now which will be found to be equally hardy 
by-and-by. Both we and our fathers, however, added nothing to 
the hardiness of these plants : quite the contrary. Our mode of 
culture, in every instance, only made them less able to stand our 
climate. Therefore nothing is to be taught on the subject of 
acclimatising, save that of crossing plants which are not quite 
hardy with those that arc so; and then to experiment on the 
seedlings, so as to find out if all or any of them are able to resist 
our winters, and of that subject we -have never lost sight. Ca¬ 
mellias, as far as is known, are as hardy as Laurels, but their 
flowers do no good out of' doors ; and many of the Chinese 
Azaleas are nearly as hardy, with the same drawback.] 
NOTES ON SOME BULBS. 
“ I must beg for a root of the blue wild Anemone when the 
time comes. 1 thought it a myth. That is what comes of fancy¬ 
ing one’s self too knowing. My meaning was to ask if any one 
now living had seen the double white Hepatica. I know- the 
book account of it, and other marvels, by heart. Our ancestors 
understood bulb growing, and the production of double llowers, 
far better than we. The gorgeous flora of the present day was 
then unknown, and they diligently and patiently made the best 
of what they had. Many doubles are mentioned which are now 
lost. Oporanthus lutc.us is described and figured, and the raising 
of it from seed treated, as a matter of course. I never saw it 
seed but once (this spring) ; but a slug destroyed the seed-vessel. 
Mr. A. Henderson lias, or had, a gem of an Ornithogalum, which 
is unknown to me. It was labelled Zephyranthcs Candida. Has 
your bulbophilite correspondent the beautiful Allium azureum 1 
It was iu the country this year, but is extremely scarce.”— 
Aiielltjs. 
[The blue Anemone Apennina is very much at your service. 
No one has ever described tho seeds of Oporanthus ; and probably 
no one living has seen it in seed under cultivation. The present 
battle fields in Italy are tho places to see it in seed. It was the 
Narcissus autumnalis major of old Clusius. The labels were 
changed by somo means, for no one would mistake a Zephy- 
ranihus for an Allium. The blue Allium grows wild in abun¬ 
dance with tho blue Ixiolirion monlamm, where Abies nord- 
maniana fills up the gorges on the Altai Mountains. We did not 
know it was in England. The botanic gardener at Nitkita, in the 
Crimea, could send us the three by the same conveyance ; or the 
Russian Embassy in London could procure them in any quantity 
through inspectors of mines on the Altai range. The Russians 
are a clanish people ; and no plant or seed, from the Ural Moun¬ 
tains to the farthest extremities of Siberia, but some one of these 
mine inspectors could hunt out, and they are in constant com¬ 
munication with the head quarters, St. Petersburg!!. Allium 
pulchellum , a violet blue, is also a Russian plant.] 
PROPAGATION OF PLATYCERIUM GRANDE. 
“ ‘ C. M.’ has a Stag’s-horn Fern, Platycerium grande, which 
has thrown out a frond straight from the plant, instead of growing 
round tho plant in the usual manner. She wishes to know if it 
is a new plant, and should be taken away; or if it is merely a 
fertile frond. She does not understand how this particular Fern 
is propagated.” 
[The broad flat fronds of Platycerium grande are a wonderful 
provision of Nature to protect the roots from the sun and drought; 
and also serve, when they become old and decay, te> feed the 
plant. These are the unfertile fronds : they never produce spores, 
or seed-cases. The fertile fronds spring from the centre of these 
spreading fronds : hence the one “ C. M.” alludes to is a fertile 
frond. This species very rarely produces an offset. It is usually 
increased by seed, which should bo sown on damp clean peat, 
covered with a bell-glass, and kept moderately moist. Take care, 
however, to sow seed, and not empty spore-cases. Your frond 
will probably produce seed this season. There is a species named 
Platycerium stemmaria, which is viviparous—that is, it sends 
forth young plants under the unfertile fronds in abundance, as 
may bo seen at Sir John Cathcart’s, Cooper’s Hill, under the 
management of Mr. Dods. The old plant was growing last 
summer in a pot with holes round the sides; and the young 
plants were pushing through the holes iu a manner exceedingly 
curious.] 
VARIETIES. 
Wild and Domestic Fowls in Siberia. — The men of 
Tobolsk engage with much heartiness in killing the wild fowl, 
which is so numerous in the neighbourhood, that at this season 
partridges and heath-cock are ordinary food with all classes of 
the inhabitants. The large ptarmigan, also, becomes in the 
depth of winter extremely plentiful in the immediate vicinity of 
the town. But they, as well as the German pheasant (Tclrao 
tetrix), and the cock of the woods (T. urogallus), are brought at 
all seasons from the country of the Ostyaks further north, lho 
universal enjoyment of these and various other kinds of food, 
which in Europe are reserved for the most part for the favourites 
of fortune, cannot fail to remind one of the opinion asserted by 
Paulus Jovius, who, already in the middle of the sixteenth 
century, speaking of what he had himself witnessed, maintained 
that the Russian people lived not so much in elaborate elegance 
as in the richest superfluity; for their tables were always supplied, 
and at the most trifling cost, with kinds of food which none but 
the most luxurious and prodigal among us ever thought of pro¬ 
curing. What he then said of Russia in reference to game, 
which, in western Europe at that time, appears to have been 
already the exclusive property of privileged grandees, as well us 
to tho abundance of fine fish in the rivers, is a fair picture of the 
ordinary resources of Tobolsk at the present day. bwan s flesh 
is rarely eaten in Tobolsk, unless salted, and on that account it 
is but little esteemed. It is obtained in this state from the 
Russian settlers along tho Irtuish and Obi, who, in autumn, 
stretch nets on the side of the stream, in places where they have 
cleared away the wood, and then, rowing down in foggy weather, 
they drive the swans and flocks of other water-fowl into these 
snares. They throw the enormous stock of game thus procured 
into pits carelessly dug near the banks of the river, and have 
! recourse to it in time of want; not being over nice if it be some¬ 
what tainted. A few who are more stirring and thrifty salt the 
palatable food, and carry it to the towns at some distance. In 
like manner the eggs of several kinds of duck are sold iu io- 
bolsk for a mere trifle, yet not in such abundance as totally to 
supplant domestic poultry ; for the latter are taken great care ol 
during the winter, and are often kept even in the warmed rooms 
of the house. Eor preserving the eggs of wild fowl, the people 
