THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Januaby 4, 1859. 
upon mo. That subject is still open; but wc are already 
in possession of many useful hints and ideas respecting it, 
for which I offer my best thanks. 
The next question is, how to arrive at the best portable 
hot-water apparatus, without getting into hot water with 
landlords, if we have to remove the apparatus at the end of 
a lease. Rogers’ conical boiler is the nearest kind of boiler 
I know of for that purpose, and these flexible, vulcanised 
rings are certainly very handy for undoing the joints. If 
Mr. Jones could place the “cannon boilers” on carriages, 
like martial cannons,- the thing would be as complete as 
our artillery departments at Woolwich and elsewhere. 
Mr. Jones might also give us a lift about the elastic rings 
for making portable joints. Perhaps he has them on sale, 
in sizes, to suit the different sizes of the pipes. He is said 
to be the largest holder of hot-water appliances in London ; 
and, whether London is in Middlesex or Surrey, he is|in 
the midst of London, and must know more about these 
things than we in the country. At all events, depend upon 
it, the question is a crying one among a large section of our 
readers ; and nothing would please one more than to bo able 
to fathom it to the bottom, and bring it up clear to the 
surface, and to the clear comprehension of all whom it does 
concern. 
As to other gardening topics, nothing goes down now 
so much as cut flowers for balls, polkas, and petticoats. 
Cut Camellias, of all colours and sizes, are most in demand ; 
the double white Chinese Primrose, in close bunches, the 
next favourites. Sprigs of Heaths are also coming much 
into favour for young ladies just coming out. Feathers and 
artificial flowers are much quizzed in the clubs, as smelling 
too much of plum puddings and stinginess,—two odd 
things for contrast. 
My own keeping-room is rather gay this Christmas, with 
variegated plants, such as Begonia Bex, Miranda, and 
Argentea guttata, Sonerilas, Farfugiums, and lots of Cy¬ 
clamens, all of which seem to do fair enough placed on 
trays, with the pots well packed in green moss, or the pots 
plunged into China vases, and also in moss. Damp moss 
is the life of plants that are kept for show in living rooms, 
where the air is so dry that no plant could stand it without 
the antidote. It strikes me that Cyclamen flowers will be 
the favourite flowers for the hair, when their bewitching 
beauty is once seen that way. All the polkas, and the 
tossings about in ball-rooms, will not hurt nor injure a 
Cyclamen flower, for nights and nights together. In knots 
of six or seven flowers, or in single wreaths across the j 
forehead, they are alike most beautiful for young people ; 
and of all the cut flowers, the Cyclamen appears to my 
eye to be the least assuming, so to speak. The breed of 
Bersicum is the best. Long, firm footstalks; the colours 
from the purest ivory white to dark erimsom, and the shape 
elegans. ' D. Beaton. 
SUNK GLASS-HOUSES. 
(Continued from 'page 19G.) 
“ What arc the advantages of these? Should I gain 
anything, and how much, in placing my greenhouse in a 
low dell ? Or would it be as well to have it on a steepish, 
romantic spot ? In the one ease, I could form a reservoir 
inside, of water that comes from a small, constant spring, 
the water from which never freezes, until it has run a 
considerable length, but averages a temperature of 60°. 
Would a large basin at that temperature keep my plants 
from frost, the basin being beneath a planked, or grated, 
floor ? In the other case", I should want no wall for the 
back of my house, as the sandy rock could easily be 
made straight. Should I gain any advantage in the way 
of heat, from the rock being on the face of the hill, and 
the average temperature of which, a few feet from the 
surface, is always a long way above the freezing point ? 
I have been reading some philosophical works, and as 
they say, that the lower we go down into the earth the 
hotter it is, is it possible, by sinking and boring, to let 
some of that heat to the surface; and if not, what can bo 
the use of sinking houses and pits below the surface, 
instead of having all above ground, or giving a preference 
to one place over another ? What with Humboldts and 
Gardners, I am fairly puzzled. I should like to avoid 
artificial heating, if possible. Gardeners sink their houses 
at one time, and build them all above the surface at 
another ; and what course to pursue I know not. Please 
try and unravel this tangled skein for me ?”—The gist of 
some half-score inquiries. 
I believe that all this is partly owing to the commotion 
raised, about portable houses; and, had I anything at all 
tempting to write about, I should have preferred transmit¬ 
ting the whole affair to Mr. Beaton, who, according to 
many, would never be at a loss for the matter of a first-rate 
article, if you only gave him an old shabby broomstick, 
either as a text, or a hobbyhorse. Unfortunately', the most 
of us can only'manage a middling article, when we are pre¬ 
sented with a subject, about the ins and outs of which 
we think we are somewhat well acquainted. A plain 
man may thus be useful, but he can never make, or find, 
matter where the generality would never dream of look¬ 
ing for it, nor yet throw around it the halo of interest 
and wonder which seems so easy to a true son of genius. 
Hardly knowing where to begin, I will somewhat at 
random remark:— 
1st. That sunk houses, or pits, and raised houses, have 
each their advantages and disadvantages, independent of 
position, according to the object aimed at. No doubt the 
sinking of such places was first resorted to for keeping in 
heat—first, by preventing radiation from exposed walls ; 
and secondly, by covering the glass likewise, at night and 
cold weather, and thus preventing, so far, radiation of 
heat from it. The practice of sinking the bounding walls 
was, therefore, resorted to in cases where a high, some¬ 
what uniform, temperature was required, as in Pine pits, 
or Cucumber and Melon pits, where even the walls were 
made the medium for throwing in heat from fermenting 
materials; and, in the case of cold pits, where tender 
plants were protected from frost, merely by preventing 
it entering through the glass, and the walls above ground. 
The more the Avails were sunk, the less surface would 
be exposed to cold winds, as well as severe frosts. But 
in cold pits, the deeper the bottom was sunk, the more 
would the plants inside be subject to damp, and the 
more subdued and shaded would be the light which 
reached that part of the plant at 4hc bottom of the pit. 
In pits, or sunk houses, AA'hero much heat is used, the 
same shading influence will act prejudicially ; and hence, 
unless placed very thinly, and at a distance from the 
front wall, the plants will not thrive so well as in raised 
houses, with the light all round them. 
The keeping heat in, or frost out, was the chief object 
in sinking the walls of glass-houses below the ground 
level. Much the same object might be attained by build¬ 
ing on the surface and using holloAv walls. Those sunk 
structures were more used when heat was considered to 
be of more importance than light. Even uoav, however, 
gi\'e equal and similar surfaces of glass, and equal access 
to the sun’s rays, and it matters not, as respects light, 
whether your walls are sunk or raised. It will matter as 
to warmth. Thus, supposing I put up a span-roofed 
house,—some sixteen or twenty' feet in Aridth, and some 
fifty feet in length, its tAvo ends standing north and south, 
and the side walls some four or five feet in height, and 
opaque,—and I sink another house, of similar size, and 
in an open position, so that the side Avails are only one 
foot above the ground level,—no more ray's of light aa ould 
be thrown into one house than the other. Such plants 
as Pines, Geraniums, &c., according to the temperature, 
Avould thrive equally Avell in either of such houses, pro¬ 
vided they were placed little loAver than the side wall 
plates. Peaches, Vines, &c., trained up the roof aa itliiu. 
fifteen inches of the glass, would flourish equally well in 
either house, as they would receive ample light on either 
