123 
THE COTTAGE GAEDEKER AND COTJNTKY GENTLEMAN, November 30, 1858. 
Scott, “ Where are the common people ; I can see none but 
gentlemen ? ” “ Sire,” said Sir Walter, with great gravity, 
“ they would all consider themselves gentlemen, too, if 
S ur Majesty would deign to restore to them their Muekle 
eg.” But His Majesty never heard the name before, 
and Sir Walter had to explain that Muekle Meg was an 
ancient Scottish cannon, which the English took in some 
battle, which I forget, and that the piece was lying use¬ 
lessly in the Tower, in London, from that time till then. 
That led to the restoration of Muekle Meg to her rightful 
clan. But it seemed out of all conscience, that Mr. Low 
should begin cannonading at his time of life. Yet so it 
is, and the"hottest work I ever saw done with cannon was 
at the Clapton Nursery. Munro’s cannon boiler was fixed 
and fired there in earnest, and did the work so unlike 
other cannons, by saving the lives of thousands of plants 
from hurt and harm, that a second cannon boiler was 
ordered while the iron was hot; and I have seen them 
both at work on new targets, in the shape of “ a world of 
new glass ” houses. “ Bless you, Sir, they burns any 
mortal thing you likes to give ’em,” as Sam would say. 
And the foundations for them need not be more than 
three feet deep below the level of the pipes. 
The best proof of their efficiency, is the fact that one 
of them, which cost £8, does the work of four or five 
older boilers ; and that as soon as its power was proved, a 
second one, costing £5, was set to work in a new Camellia- 
house, which is a span-roof, north and south, 135 feet 
long and 15 feet wide; also, an Epacris-house of the 
same shape and size,—say, 600 feet of four-inch pipes,— 
worked by a five-guinea cannon boiler, which burns “ any 
mortal thing.” These new span-roofed houses have no 
stages, only a three-feet wide path down the centre, and a 
raised bed on each side, surfaced with sifted ashes, to 
stand the pots on. The front is half of bricks, and the 
upper half of glass, but not in the usual way. The sashes 
are in one sheet of glass, four feet long and thirty inches 
high, and the kind of glass is Hartley’s patent fluted. 
The roof is of the same, in panes eighteen inches 
wide and two feet long, all glazed like Mr. Elvers’ 
orchard-house, of all “ rafters and no lights ; ” but here 
each side of the rafter is rebated, to let in the glass, just 
like the common sash-bar, and no capping. The rafters 
are one inch and a quarter thick, and four inches deep, all 
fixed on one side ; the other side is in sashes, and every 
other one moves up and down for ventilation. The paths 
are of Eoman cement, one inch and a half thick, and are 
smoother than the glass ; and that kind of glass requires 
no shading. There are cross iron ties and upright sup¬ 
ports to the roof, and the whole look as if they would 
last a thousand years. Therefore, there is no indication 
of divide and go, in this well-rooted firm, like some of 
our tenantry round here, who want hothouses as portable 
as camp stools. 
In addition to the two long span-houses mentioned, 
there is a high lean-to house, 145 feet long and 14 feet 
wide. Also, a lean-to tan pit, for newly imported plants, 
all erected this last summer, and all heated by the two 
cannon boilers, and four-inch pipes. Thirteen pounds for 
the- two boilers ! The whole heating apparatus, glazing, 
and carpentering, were executed and finished in first-rate 
style by Mr Low’s own men, so that he must have in his 
employ, painters, carpenters, glaziers, workers in iron, and 
a civil engineer ; and a very civil and obliging man he is, 
for he went round with me, and answered all my Paul 
Pryisrn with great patience and good humour. What I 
learned about the Fuchsias and bedding plants were from 
other heads of departments. 
Mr. Stewart Low was engaged with a Prussian, or 
Eussian, nurseryman. AE that the father, and father-in- 
law showed, was a Malakoff, a recent building over the 
seed shop, where he, and some of his generals, probably, 
sleep in troublesome times, that they may see all that is 
going on below, inside and out; and, as long as I think of 
it, I must tell the hundreds of good gardeners, who passed 
through this emporium, on their way to supply cooks, and 
flirt with ladies’ maids, that the long line of potting shed 3 
behind the old Australian-house is now also heated by one 
of Weeks’ best boilers, which heats all the glass and struc¬ 
tures on that side of the place very efficiently. But water 
being up to within four feet of the surface, and Weeks’ 
boiler requiring deeper setting, they are not so handy here 
without going to more expense to make the places for 
them water-tight. 
Hartley’s fluted glass is a splendid article for all plant- 
houses ; and having seen so much of it on these new 
houses, and the healthy appearance and beauty of the vast 
variety of plants under it, I am now perfectly satisfied it 
is the best kind of glass for garden purposes. The houses 
being all fixtures, I got no new ideas on portable houses; 
but the rafter-like system, in sash-bars, is not nearly so 
handy to take to pieces as the old system of lights. The 
ventilation to make a glass-house cooler than the open air, 
in calm, sultry weather, is not yet well understood by 
most hothouse builders. 
I saw Mr. Eyles, of the Crystal Palace, at St. James’s 
Hall. He, too, is coming out with a span new house, on 
a new system, which I must see, ere I can report progress 
on portabilities. 
The wholesale trade of this nursery is, perhaps, the 
largest in the kingdom, and that is the secret why all 
new plants are “ let out ” as soon as they can be propa¬ 
gated. When Mr. Low is asked, why he let out such a 
lant till he had enough of it to bring him in a fortune ?■— 
e answers, the chances are just the contrary; but by 
giving the trade a share, as it were, in his new plants, he 
can always sell them as soon as they are fit. No plant 
ever hangs on his hands, and his business must have 
doubled within the last dozen years. In common things, 
his annual sale and propagation is enormous7,000 
Epacris, 7,000 Ericas, 7,000 Camellias, and Azaleas nearly 
the same. Conifers, of which he sells more than of any 
other family, are now in their different stages, from seeds, 
cuttings, and graftings, occupying 500 lights, none of 
them under six feet wide. There are 80 of such lights 
full of Epacris, in 60-pots, four in a pot. Heaths are 
potted in the same way, from the cutting-pots ; and next 
spring or summer the ball is divided into four parts, a 
tiny little wort in each part. That is the best way for 
amateurs, with almost all their spring cuttings; or, if 
they are strong sorts, put six, eight, or ten of them, from 
the cutting-pot, into 48-pots, till they are strong enough 
to plant out. At all events, potting scores, or thousands, 
of such little plants into 60, or into thumb-pots, would be 
enough to drive a man crazy, looking after the little 
mites, sucking, sulking, or scorching, all day long, and 
from one day and week to another. 
Among Conifers, I saw—Eive or six thousand seedlings 
of the beautiful Cupressus Lawsoniana. Three thousand 
seedlings of Picta Nordmanniana, from a hint I gave in 
The Cottage Gardener, as to where it could be had in 
the Crimea, on the authority of a Colonel in the Guards. 
Fifty thousand seedlings of Cupressus macrotarpa, from 
Mr. Thomas Bridges, and every one of them quite 
different from Cupressus Lambertiana. So Mr. Gordon 
and Dr. Bindley made a sad blunder about C. macrocarpa, 
in saying, and in still insisting on the error, that it is 
identical with Lambertiana, which, most certainly, it is 
not, and never was. Seven hundred Clematis lanuginosa, 
all grafted on the roots of C. cmrulea, which never throws 
up a sucker, as they are like Dahlia or Asparagus roots,— 
once you get below the region of the eyes, you are safe 
from suckers for ever and for aye. The lanuginosa is the 
best of all the hardy Clematises. Some scores of large 
Yucca recurva, in pots, and the best of them also. Forty 
large specimens of the gold variegated Yucca, also in 
pots,—a scarce thing. The finest in Europe, and, I be¬ 
lieve, the oi’iginal Araucaria Coolcii, from Mr. Loddiges’ 
sale, and knocked down by Mr. Stevens. It is a splendid 
plant, upwards of eight feet high. It would be a great 
