THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 15, 1859. 
93 
winter and early spring. Eor instance : if at seven in the morning 
in December yon find there are 20° of fiost out of doors, and 
your house has sunk to 35°, and you can hardly tell what the day 
will be, and there is little heat in your heating medium, then it 
would be advisable to put a small sharp fire on to prevent the 
house getting lower. But suppose that under similar circum¬ 
stances your house were from 38° to 40°, and a nice heat in the 
pipes, and the sky looking clear, and the wind very sharp though 
not much of it, then it would be folly to think of adding more 
fire, as the sun will be strong on the house in two or three hours; 
and in such an outside atmosphere the less of it that you admit 
voluntarily into the house the better. By that time the heating 
medium will be pretty well cool, and the sun will exert less 
heating power on such a cool house; so that a very little air at 
the highest part of the roof will be all that is required ; and if 
the sun should be clouded much before mid-day you would need 
to give no air at all. By carelessly, under such circumstances, 
putting on a large fire in the morning the thermometer mounts 
up like a rocket, down go the sashes ; and the poor plants, after 
being in the frying-pan of a dried air all night, are tumbled 
into a scorching frosty air in the forenoon; and young enthu¬ 
siasts scratch the inquisitive bump as to how no application 
from the spout of the watering-pot can make hanging distressed 
foliage hold up its head in vigour and luxuriance. Prevent the 
fire heat and sun heat thus meeting, and then the little air at the 
top it will be necessary to give for two or tierce hours will be 
moistened and heated as it descends before it plays upon the 
stems and foliage. If overtaken under such circumstances it 
would be safer to shade the house a little in preference to giving 
so much air. 
These, it is true, are extreme circumstances; but they are 
likely enough to happen, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. 
There are two other cases in which a fire in the daytime is 
very beneficial. Sometimes we have raw, foggy weather; and 
though considerably above freezing point, this fog will get into 
our houses, and no tender-growing plant likes it. We can do 
nothing with the external atmosphere, but that enclosed in our 
glass-cases we can manage. Light a brisk fire ; and when it tells 
upon the house give a very little back air, and the extra heat will 
change the visible fog into invisible vapour. 
Again, sometimes, we have warmish winter weather for 
weeks—close, muggy; a little wet; plenty of clouds ; no sun; 
thermometer in the house just high enough, and no more; air in 
the house heavy and stationary. Put a fire on after breakfast 
to heat the pipes, or flue, and open the ventilators, and the at¬ 
mosphere will at least be thoroughly renewed. Unless in severe 
frost, other things being equal, the less sunshine there is the 
more need there is for abundance of fresh air. At such a season 
it will be safest to give this air during the day, and to shut the 
house up at night. As a constant subscriber, our correspondent 
must be well aware that sun heat and fire heat act differently on 
plants. We want, therefore, no more heat than is necessary at 
night. 
Air-giving has been somewhat anticipated. In fine, mild 
weather such plants cannot have too much of it. In windy 
weather give it more sparingly. In dull, raw weather put a fire 
on during the day at times that it may be given. Open the top 
sashes first, and shut up the front ones first. In coldish weather 
open the back ones only. In cold weather let the house rise from 
5° to 10° before moving down the top sashes a few inches; if 
the sun get powerful give a little more. In severe frost give 
only a little at the top sashes; and if sunny days are expected 
see that the heating medium is cool before the sun stikes with force. 
In favourable weather, from November to March, an average time 
for giving air by degrees would be about nine a.m., and taking it 
away from two to three p.m.— regulating it, however, much by 
the weather. On frosty days give air only after the house has 
risen 10° or so, and take it away an hour or two before the sun 
has left the house. 
As to watering, water a plant when it requires it, and only 
then. Examine the tests and proofs of dryness frequently given; 
water in the forenoon in whiter; use water from 5° to 10° at 
least warmer than the average temperature of the house ; spill as 
little water as possible, as in dull weather it will help to produce 
mist and fogs. When a very bright day comes after a week or a fort¬ 
night of dull weather, the leaves of many free-growing plants will 
often flag when the roots are wet enough, but cannot absorb fast 
enoughto meetthe sudden demandsof the sun’s rays in evaporating. 
It is useless to pour water into the soil if wet enough already. 
It is better either to shade a little, or squirt a little water over 
the foliage with a fine syringe; also damping the shelves, &c., 
but so as all will be dry before night. The sun will take up the 
water from the outside of the leaf instead of drawing it from the 
inside, and the balance will be restored. 
I am sorry that all this is only an oft-told tale, but it may be 
timely, and therefore useful. R. Fish. 
A DAISIED LAWN—SPERG-ULA PILIFERA. 
Last summer was so dry a one, that the grass on my lawn has 
become much weakened, and in consequence, I suppose, the 
Daisies have increased to such a degree, that the eradication by 
hand is hopeless. Will you inform me what will be best to do, 
not involving any great expense ?—F. W., Manchester. 
[To rid a lawn of Daisies is a hopeless task, and the most ex¬ 
pensive thing about a garden; and yet there is no way one quarter 
so cheap as to spud them out, late in the spring, by hand. For 
nine years running we had from eight to fourteen lads from a 
charity school, “ till they should hear of something better,” 
every spring, with an old man to look after them, doing nothing 
for months but spudding out Daisies, and “ larking ” whenever 
the old man’s back was turned ; and we verily believe that for 
every Daisy they destroyed, fifteen more came to take its place. 
The truth is, we must get rid of all the grass, the Daisies, the 
moss, the weeds, and the worm casts, and take to Spergula 
pilifera, which, if it is well done, will soon put down these tor¬ 
mentors and eyesores. On that point there is not the slightest 
cause to doubt. The discovery of Spergula pilifera , as a carpet 
for lawns, ranks with that of gas, steam, electricity, and cod 
liver oil.—D. B.] 
TRITONIA AITREA CULTURE. 
Pray refer your correspondent, who asks about Tritonia aurea, 
and quotes the directions given respecting it at page 255 of Yol. 
XIV. of The Cottage Gardener, to the admirable article at 
page 175, in Vol. XXI. 
I have been studying the plant since March, and find it just as 
there described; but I have some experiments still undecided. 
Two things, however, are quite certain : one, that the bulbs 
should be grown in boxes, not in pots, so as to give space for the 
Couch-grass-like runners; the other, that if you bring one of 
these underground runners above the surface, the runner perishes 
and its bulb also. 
I find that each old bulb pushes forth from one to three 
runners, and that the old bulbs are generally connected, each to 
to each, by a tough root about six inches long, more like thin 
wire than anything else. Can these be the runners of the pre¬ 
ceding year, at whose joints the new bulbs have been formed ? 
I cannot find anything in The Cottage Gardener about the 
double Chinese Primroses ; but I am told they are very apt to 
slip through one’s fingers. I have recently invested in some, and 
should be glad to know how to treat and propagate them. The 
alba plena Jimbriata is a beautiful thing.—A Country Sub¬ 
scriber. 
HEATH-BANK HOUSE. 
THE SEAT OE THOMAS KENDALL, ESQ. 
This interesting place is remarkable for the avenue of Cedrus 
deodar a planted hi the spring of last year. I have watched its 
progress with some anxiety, in the hope that the trees would 
be found able to bear the climate so far north, and grow so as 
to give a reasonable expectation that the trial would be success¬ 
ful. I am happy to be enabled to state, that so far that hope is 
realised. At this moment they are growing remarkably well, 
and many of them have made shoots this year half a yard long, 
and all of them are covered with their silvery leaves in abundance. 
Now, as this experiment has so far succeeded so well, I think it 
will be useful to many other gentlemen who may be desirous to 
plant a similar avenue, to describe this avenue more particularly, 
and the mode in which it is planted. It is planted on each side 
of a winding carriage-drive, about 500 yards long, leading up 
to the mansion. By this serpentine mode each tree meets the eye 
distinct from its neighbour, and the tame effect of straight lines 
is avoided. The trees are planted in a mixture of loam, sandy 
peat, leaf mould, and well-rotted dung. The park is flat, and 
the subsoil dry, hence there was no -necessity to plant the trees 
on raised mounds; and the gardener, Mr. G. Houghton, 
