198 
TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 28, 1858. 
remember, that in a bedroom twelve feet by ten feet, and nine 
feet high, the cubical measure of air is 1,080 cubic feet, whereof 
216 cubic feet only are oxygen, or vital air; and that by medical 
statistics, it is estimated, that in a night of ten hours a man will 
consume thirty, a woman twenty-live, and a child seventeen 
cubic feet of oxygen respectively (or seventy-two in all), what must 
be the nauseating state of that atmosphere in the morning, of 
which one-third has been thus withdrawn, to be replaced, too, by 
poisonous carbonic acid of equivalent amount, and that heated 
with tlie addition of animal effluvia, tainting the condensed 
Mr around, and contaminating the remaining two-thirds of vital 
air in the said room, especially around the sleepers : in hot 
weather, when those air-corrupters rise to the ceiling the less 
readily, the oppressive consequences become, alas! but too often 
distressingly enervating before the morning dawn, when the sons 
of toil are necessitated to renew their daily labour. How can 
the women but be pale and languid, and the children sickly- 
looking, under such circumstances ? And how, pray, can such 
sleep prove to them “ nature’s sweet restorer,” as a merciful 
God intended it should prove ? 
Should any of the inmates of a bedroom—so deprived of all 
means of ventilation—chance to fall ill, and have to keep their bed 
for days, perhaps, together, alas! indeed, and woe betide that 
unhappy cottage, for naught but a merciful Providence can then 
avert therefrom that endemic typhoid fever, which a damp- 
floored living-room and close bedroom generate—nay, the nidus 
of a fell epidemic may be there formed, and extend by infection 
over all the vicinity.—II. Austen, Lieut.-Colonel. 
NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 
Osbeckia aspera ( Rough-leavecl OsbecMd). 
A Btove plant, long cultivated at Kew, where it is very showy 
in summer ar_d autumn. Native of Ceylon and Indian peninsula. 
Blossoms purple.—( Botanical Magazine, t. 5,085.) 
Monstera Adansonii (Perforated Monster a). 
Our readers will realise this plant, when we state, by various 
botanists it has also been called Arum hederaceum, Calla Dra- 
contium, and Dracontium pertusum. It was introduced by 
Phillip Miller, in 1752, and is a native of the West Indian 
islands and tropical America. It is a climbing plant, attaching 
itself to the trunks of trees by fleshy fibres, like Ivy. Elower, or 
spathe, cream-coloured.— {Ibid., t. 5,086.) 
Apteeanthes Gussoniana {GussonPs Apteranthes). 
Called also Stapelia Gussoniana, and S. Luropma, also 1iir- 
cherosia Munbyana. Native of the island Lampedusa, near Sicily; 
at Almeria, in Spain ; and elsewhere. It is a greenhouse suc¬ 
culent, flowering in September. Blossoms pale yellow.— {Ibid., 
t. 5,087.) 
Lobelia tiiigonocaulis {Triangular-stemmed Lobelia). 
Native of North-Eastern Australia, near Brisbane River; and 
Mount Lindsay, Moreton Bay. Introduced by Messrs. Low and 
Son, of the Clapton Nursery. It is of great merit as an orna¬ 
mental bedder; and was recently noticed in our pages by Mr. 
Beaton.— {Ibid., t. 5,088.) 
Eieldia Austealis {Australian Fieldia). 
Native of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, where it 
was discovered by Mr. Caley, in 1804. It flowered at Kew, in a 
greenhouse, during September, 1858. Blossoms very pale yellow. 
— {Ibid., t. 5,089.) 
Bilbeegia Liboniana {Liboris Billergia). 
Native of Rio de Janeiro. Elowered in the stove at Kew, 
during August, 1858. Sepals red, petals purplish blue.— {Ibid., 
t. 5,090.) 
THE ALMA POTATO. 
In answer to “ J. C. M,,” I beg to state, that I believe the Alma 
Potato was raised five years since, but was not named until the 
season after that great battlo was fought. It was raised by an 
amateur (Mr. Grimley), and made a present to me by the then 
gardener at Thorngrove, formerly the seat of Prince Lucien 
Buonaparte, who informed me it w’as raised as described in my 
list in The Cottage Gardener. It was not raised from the 
old Ash-leaf, but from a variety of Ash-leaf, called, about here, 
the Second Ash-leaf, a more productive variety than the old one, 
I do not happen to know of any other cross-bred variety, besides 
the one named, although I know of several good seedling varieties. 
1 shall feel a great pleasure if “ J. C. M.” will give me his 
address, to forward any variety, for the purpose named, that I 
have still left by me. I forwarded nearly fifty varieties that I 
j then grew for experiment, two years since, to the Continent.— 
E. Bennett. 
CELERY BECOMING HOLLOW. 
A COREespondent in the west of Lancashire Complains of 
his Celery becoming lioflow and pithy, and asks for acIvitC 
in the matter, as he says bis ground is good, and manure 
plentifully used. I should not have been at all surprised 
at this question being asked anywhere else than in Lancashire, 
for it is too common an occurrence to meet with indifferent 
Celery. But, being led to believe that the county in question 
was famous for that article,—as for its Potatoes, Gooseberries, 
and, I might add, Peaches,—it is only another instance of the 
many cases of exception ; for, however remarkable a district may 
become for producing certain things, there are sure to be some of 
an inferior description as well. Several causes generally conspire 
to make it so; but, in the present case, it certainly appears that 
the cultivator has done his part to make it good ; and, being un¬ 
successful, it is only fair to examine the cause of its being so. 
! Like everything else, an undue degree of grossness tends to 
j make a plant more delicate, long-jointed, pithy, or hollow. 
! Celery, though it is as proverbial as an alderman for its relish of 
! good living, is subject to this infirmity. But, as the taste for 
large Celery demands this high feeding, the careful cultivator 
bestows more than ordinary care to have the seed of the best 
possible kind—that is, of the kind most remarkable for its so- 
| lidity. Now, this qualification is, it is feared, not too rigidly 
adhered to by seedsmen. The best varieties of Celery, like that of 
most other plants, yield less seed than indifferent kinds. The 
consequence is, that it too frequently happens that the commoner 
sort is mixed with the best; and plants too prone to run to seed, 
or become hollow, are the result. The latter failing is complained 
of by our correspondent, whose case is far from being a solitary 
one, for Celery more or less hollow 7 has long been an evil which 
only careful management can guard against. Nevertheless, it 
can, in a great measure, be done, for good solid Celery is certainly 
more plentiful than it was twenty years ago, the means of having 
it so being in the hands of most growers of that article. 
Having said that good solid Celery seeds less abundantly 
than the commoner sorts, if is also right to say, that it is also 
more liable to those mishaps which carry off plants in the course 
of seeding —I have seen a -whole row die off in May. Conse¬ 
quently, good kinds of Celery are more difficult to perpetuate 
than may at first be supposed. The best and surest way, perhaps, 
to have it pure, is, to occasionally grow a few plants, and save 
the seed at home. The best plants for this purpose are those 
from the latest sowing of the preceding year, and which have 
been but very little blanched ; in fact, some of the plants that are 
put out on plain ground, only a few inches apart, to furnish the 
green top used occasionally for flavouring certain dishes. These 
late plants are much more hardy than tire forward ones, that 
have been blanched almost to death. Take especial care, how¬ 
ever, that the kind be good ; and, if it be necessary to transplant 
them in spring, let them have plenty of room, and a large ball of 
earth to each root. Few plants produce seed more plentifully 
than Celery, when it is in a healthy and vigorous state, and few 
seeds keep longer unimpaired by the action of time and the other 
contingences consequent on long keeping. At the same time, it 
is not prudent to depend on old seed at all times ; for, though it 
will germinate, the plants are said to be more liable to run to 
seed, than those raised from that which is younger. I cannot 
positively affirm that this is the ease, having had very good Celery 
from seed six years old and more. But there are so many other 
reasons, or causes, hearing on the success of the crop, that we 
often mistake the real one for some other. 
During the past summer, the Celery here (Linton) scarcely 
made any progress at all from June to the end of September, 
after which it grew rapidly, the long dry season and dry soil 
being unsuited to it. Now, as a very rapid growth is at variance 
with solidity in a general way, where not kept in check by the 
goodness of the variety grown, it follows that the seed of our 
correspondent had been more or less spurious, and not old ; for 
