THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, December 9, 1850. 169 
completely horizontal. In all root pruning make a clean 
cut; and, if any portion of the root shows sucker-like 
excrescences, pare them away completely, or let that 
root undergo excision. 
With regard to branch pruuing it will be seen that 
certain shoots are marked to be pruned back very short. 
These are what I have ever called in these pages 
“ nursery shoots;” and on a judicious adherence to this 
through the whole life of the Peach depends principally 
the symmetry of the tree, and a thorough clothing of the 
wall without naked portions, which at once spoil the 
appearance of an otherwise fine tree. 
11. ErRINGTON. 
CYPR1PEDIUM LOWEf. 
Low’s Lady’s Slipper. 
This beautiful native of Borneo, and especially of the 
neighbourhood of Sarawak, was introduced in 1847. It 
has, when wild, from eight to ten llowers on one stem. It 
is especially distinguished by its two very long spatulate- 
sbaped petals. 
It is difficult to imagine anything more beautiful in its 
way than this Bornean Lady's. Slipper. The lip is a purplish 
green, and smooth as if French -polished; the sepals are 
green, with a purple tinge near their base; the petals are 
quite three inches long, spreading and then curving grace¬ 
fully inwards and upwards, narrow near the base, pale 
greenish yellow, blotched with deep brown, and rose-coloured 
at the ends, which are twice as broad as the other parts. 
It is said to be a plant of easy cultivation, and is a great 
acquisition .—(Horticultural Society’s Journal.) 
Roasted Gourd-seeds. —It is only partially known 
that the roasted seeds of many of the Gourd tribe furnish 
an excellent addition and nice variety to the dessert, 
particularly those of the Cucurbita pepo gigantea, which 
produces seeds in abundance, possessing an agreeable 
nutty flavour.— Amicus. 
CONSTRUCTION, COST, AND MANAGEMENT 
OF A SMALL PIT FOR WINTERING PLANTS. 
I send you these few hints, according to my promise in a 
late number of The Cottage Gardener, hoping they may 
prove of some service to those who, like myself, possess a 
small flower-garden, which they manage chiefly with their 
own hands; and especially I trust they will be acceptable 
to many of my clerical brethren. 
When I commenced gardening I felt the want of some 
simple instruction of this kind. It was several years before 
I determined upon discarding the common garden-frame as 
a winter shelter for my bedding-plants (a make-shift which 
almost invariably ends in disappointment), and set up a pit 
with a flue. Had I known at how small a cost such a place 
can be constructed, how small is the necessary expenditure 
of fuel, and how easily and certainly the contents may be 
preserved during the worst seasons of damp and the severest 
frosts, I should decidedly have set up one at the outset. 
To commence, then, with the cost of construction of a 
suitable pit. My own is 18 ft. 9 in. long, and 4 ft. 10 in. 
broad, inside measure. The brickwork is 4 in. thick; the 
height of the front is 2 ft. 2 in. of the back, 3 ft. 7 in. from the 
ground-level, exclusive of the framework at the top ; chim¬ 
ney, 9 ft. At the back and sides are strengthening but¬ 
tresses. The stoke-hole is at the back at one end ; the top 
of the furnace 6 or 8 in. below the ground-level; and the 
flue, which runs round the front and each side, gradually 
rises till it enters the chimney. It will then be found that 
the surface of the coal-ashes for the plants to stand upon, 
being about 14 in. from the top of the brickwork in front, 
allows a sufficient depth over the hotter part of the flue near 
the furnace, and is shallower towards the cooler part nearer 
the chimney. The flue is detached 2 in. from the brickwork 
of the pit, and is constructed of brick on edge, and covered 
! with large, heavy tiles ( 6d . a-piece), carefully cemented at 
| the joints. The mason’s bill for all this, inclusive of lime, 
j sand, labour, grate, flue, chimney, etc., was T6 15s. 
There are five lights, 5 ft. 4 in. long by 3 ft. 8 in. broad, 
I substantially made of red pine, glazed with 10-oz. glass, and 
thrice painted. They cost me complete, carriage from 
I Bristol included, under Tl a-piece. Fitting upon these 
lights are shutters for frosty weather. My own shutters are 
' unnecessarily expensive, being tongued, and made to fit the 
lights accurately, lapping over each other, Ve. They cost 
me (thrice painted) Os. a-piece. Very excellent and more 
durable shutters, however, may be constructed of f-deal 
boards, well fitted at the edges—not tongued—with a strong 
! piece of board nailed across at top and bottom (of the 
' upper side, when in position), one shutter for each light, 
! and painted, at a cost of about 3s. each. They should be as 
heavy as is convenient to lift off and on—the heavier the 
better, as they keep the mats down closer to the glass. A 
strip, by the way, will be found necessary at the bottom of 
each shutter underneath, to meet the woodwork of the lower 
part of the light. 
The account for such a pit as this will then stand as 
follows:— 
£ 
s . 
d. 
Mason's bill ., 
. 6 
15 
0 
Lights . 
0 
0 
Shatters. 
15 
0 
Framework on 
top of brickwork 1 
10 
0 
T14 
0 
0 
This is a very liberal allowance, and I imagine would 
cover the cost of such a pit in any part of the country ; and 
one with only four lights, but similar in other respects, may 
be built for All 2s. 
We now proceed to consider the plants to be placed in 
this pit when built. A four-light pit, 15 ft. by 4 ft. 10 in., 
will easily contain 144 seven-inch pots, capable of holding 10 or 
12 cuttings each; i.e., 1440 cuttings at the least; but, allowing 
for a few old plants of Geraniums and plants single in a pot, 
there will still be ample room for 600 or 800 cuttings of 
Verbenas, Petunias, Heliotropes, Geraniums, &c., which, 
with Calceolarias (which may be wintered under hand-lights), 
will be quite sufficient to plant a garden such as I described 
lately. But in addition to the surface of the coal-ashes for 
