THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, January 13, 1857. 257 
On the other hand, those I took no special care of, merely 
tying them up in the sheltered part of the garden, were 
never so fine. How is this to be accounted for ? Please to 
give me the benefit of your opinion. Bear in mind I had 
four hundred Pompones in large pots placed a few days 
before the rain in the same aspect as the specimen plants, 
and they bloomed equally as bad.— Same. Broome, Temiple 
Gardens. 
P.S.—I must not withhold from you another experiment 
I tried. The rain brought a million of slugs. To preserve 
my suckers from their ravages I served a tolerable sprink¬ 
ling of ground unslaked lime to destroy them. Do you 
think this had any bad effect on the plants, as the next 
day it rained in torrents ? 
I forgot to mention my motive for increasing the growth 
of my specimen plants was from the partial suppressing of 
the smoke nuisance, which has caused the general improve¬ 
ment of all the plants in the garden, consequently I ex¬ 
pected something superior to former years : so they were 
till this visitation of Providence stepped in, and put a check 
on them. Every plant in the garden all the summer sur¬ 
passed former years both in health and bloom. 
[The disease among Chrysanthemums, like the Potato 
Murrain, seems inexplicable and incurable. None of those 
circumstances mentioned by Mi’. Broome could have caused 
any harm to this class of plants. We had as fine a row of 
plants as ever was seen—twenty-seven kinds in all—and 
the ground they were grown in was never cropped before, 
at least since the flood. It was well drained, well aired, 
four feet deep, and with hardly a vegetable remain in it. 
The plants were strong in June when they were put out, 
and they bad only two or three waterings of liquid-manure 
for the first ten days. No plants could promise better till 
the very end of September, but we could only pot three 
plants out of the whole, and some lost every leaf, while 
others merely went blind. Not far from this row was a 
large bed of them in very rich garden soil, and one-third of 
the plants died off completely in the shoots down to the 
suckers, and all the rest turned out most healthy, and 
bloomed very well as they were. The failures did not occur 
merely in one part of the bed, but only a plant here and 
there over the whole. 
Mr. Broome’s selection of dark Pompones is very good 
indeed, but with us Liliputian has too much stalk for the 
quantity of bloom, and we struck it off our list of out-door 
ones. Our II Brasiero is too yellow and red for a dark, and 
so is our Creole. Buckingham we do not know.] 
PIGEONS. 
Variety 3—THE DUTCH POWTER OR UPLOPER. 
The Dutch Powter, by some English writers called the 
Uploper, from its springing up or jumping at its mate when 
playing, is a bird of very different build from the common 
continental variety; it is much more slender, has a neat 
round crop, and carries itself very upright. They are not 
so large or awkward; their legs are longer, but thin, and not 
much covered with feathers. The purest, I believe, are 
generally of one whole colour, as white, blue, or black, though 
reds, yellows, buffs, and even pieds are to be had. They are 
merry, active Pigeons, though, perhaps, not always the best 
of nurses ; still I have had some of this kind that were 
excellent breeders. It is from this variety that our English 
Powter is supposed to be descended. —B. P. Brent. 
P.S.—What is the reason that the new-fangled Pigeon 
fanciers write Pouter instead of Powter ? 
THE HOUSEHOLD. 
Liver and Bacon. —Perhaps of all the dishes that are 
cooked in private families there are none more spoiled 
than this, which is, no doubt, the cause of its not being 
so great a favourite as it ought to be. To two pounds 
of liver have one pound of bacon. Cut the baoon into slices 
a quarter of an inch thick ; fry them gently; then have the 
liver already cut in slices, slant-ways, half an inch thick, 
upon which has been sprinkled, for one hour before cooking, 
some chopped parsley and a small onion chopped fine, a 
very little nutmeg, pepper, and salt. When the fat is quite 
hot, put in the liver, turn it over often, and cook as quickly 
as possible, by which the liver will be light and very 
digestible ; it should be served as soon as possible. When 
the liver is done, pour some flour and water into the 
frying-pan until it forms a thick gravy, and stir it over the 
liver and serve. The great point is the quickness with 
which the liver is done. 
OBSERVATIONS UPON THE POLMAISE 
METHOD OF HEATING GARDEN BUILDINGS. 
By the late D. B. Meek, Esq., Holmsdale House, 
Nutfield. 
[As endeavours are making to revive this system of 
heating, and as we have had some inquiries addressed to 
us upon the subject, we extract the following from a com¬ 
munication to the Horticultural Society's Journal. We have 
had no experience in this mode of heating, and we shall be 
obliged by information where, in any garden structure, it is 
employed successfully.—E d. C. G.] 
Nature teaches us that the only way to heat air is to 
bring it in contact with a heated surface,—Polmaise does 
so. Philosophy tells us that the most rapid means of j 
diffusing heat is to employ that medium which moves with | 
the greatest rapidity, namely, the air,—Polmaise does so. 
Economy tells us that an agent is an expensive luxury; he ! 
takes his per centage ; that we do not require his services, 
nay, they are an obstruction ; that our course is to allow the 
air to diffuse the heat itself, and to warm that air which we 
do, and not that which we do not want,—so does Polmaise. 
Common sense tells us that the air in a building which 
most requires warming is the coldest,—Polmaise takes it 
first. Everybody cries, “ Heat us uniformly ! ”—Polmaise is 
the only mode that can possibly approach to it. Having 
proved the truth of the Polmaise principles of heating, I 
shall proceed to point out the manner in which they may be 
easily reduced to practice. 
The coldest air in any building (whether room or hot¬ 
house) is of necessity on the floor; if it can pass below the 
floor it will be there; so that if a drain be made below the 
floor of a room, with gratings opening into it, this drain will 
be instantly filled with the coldest air of the room. Sup¬ 
posing this drain extends into another building, and the 
air which it contains is at liberty to pass over a heated 
surface, and having passed it can again flow back at a higher 
level into the place from whence it came, it is evident from 
the principles so recently laid down, that the whole air of 
the room will How over this heated surface and become 
warmed, and that such currents of air will never cease till 
the air of the two buildings is at nearly the same tempera¬ 
ture ; and consequently, that in proportion as we burn fuel, ; 
and heat the surface employed, so must we by this means 
raise the temperature of the air passing over it. 
Subjoined is a plan and section of the hothouse and 1 
stove, showing the simple mode in which I propose to carry 
out the Polmaise heating. 
The outer line of ground plan represents the walls of a 
hothouse. The openings, C, are external ventilators for the 
purpose of admitting fresh air; these are exactly such as 
might be employed for any other system of heating; they 
have no necessary connection with Polmaise, and the heating 
principle acts, whether they are closed or whether they are 
open. It is evident that when open they admit fresh air 
into the house; and however cold the weather, any air 
admitted by them, instead of cutting the plants, as is the 
case when side-sashes are open, will immediately, from its 
great specific gravity, descend at once into the cold-air drain, 
and become warmed before coming in contact with the 
vegetation within the house. The number left open will, of 
course, be dependent on external circumstances ; and when ! 
they are all closed, the hothouse resembles any other hot¬ 
house that is closed, and thus heating and ventilation are 
kept apart, the requirements of the two necessarily being 
different. Within the external walls is a walk round three 
