242 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 18, 1858. 
heat; and prick out in a protected situation in February. 
They will succeed the winter plants sooner than any that 
may be sown in the open groundand, should severe 
weather, or any other cause, destroy the plants of the 
autumn sowing, they will be most valuable as substitutes. 
Cucumbers. —The fruiting-bed should now be made, 
if the seeds were sown as recommended last week; and 
as soon as the heat is up, the light should be raised, to 
allow the steam to escape ; then fork up the dung to the 
depth of a foot or more twice or three times a-week, until 
the plants are nearly ready to turn out. As soon as the 
seeds in the seed-bed are up, and the two seed-leaves are 
fully developed, pot them in leaf mould in 48-sized pots, 
two in a pot; let the roots touch the bottom, and only 
partly fill the pot with soil, adding more at intervals of 
two or three days. 
Lettuce. —Sow in boxes, and treat in all particulars as 
advised for Cauliflowers. 
Peas and Beans. —Protect those that have made their 
appearance above ground, by drawing the soil, when 
light and dry, over them, or by sticking small branches 
of fir, or any other evergreen, on each side of the row. 
Potatoes. —If any of the early sorts are sprouting, 
they may be planted at the foot of a wall, or fence, with 
a south aspect, or in any dry, sheltered border, and 
covered with soil four or five inches deep. 
Radishes. —The same as advised for Carrots. 
ERUIT GARDEN. 
Gooseberries. —If these, or any other fruit trees, are 
covered with moss, they should be now coated with a 
mixture of quicklime, sulphur, and soot, made of the con¬ 
sistency of paint, and laid on with a small brush; or the 
trees may be syringed, or wetted, and dusted with quick¬ 
lime in a state of powder. 
Wall Trees. —Proceed with the pruning and nailing. 
ELOWER GARDEN. 
All beds intended for bedding-out plants should be 
deeply dug, and manured with leaf mould in preference 
to dung, and left exposed to the weather in a rough state. 
All arrears of winter work to be now finished up, that 
it may not interfere with the approaching spring and 
busy season. 
Carnations and Picotees. — The soil intended for 
blooming these plants in should be frequently turned 
and exposed to all weathers, excepting heavy rains or 
snow. Give all the air possible to the plants, and keep 
them clean and moderately dry. 
Hollyhocks.—P lant immediately, if the weather is 
open. 
Hyacinths (Choice).—Protect in severe weather, by 
turning a pot over them. 
Pansies. —Prepare the soil, and keep it dry, for re¬ 
potting early in February (if the weather prove mild) 
those intended for blooming under glass. Seedlings and 
plants in beds should be looked over weekly, pressing 
firmly in the soil any that have been loosened by frosts 
or by worms. 
Pits and Frames. —Prepare dung and leaves, or any 
other such fermenting materials, for a hotbed, if there is 
no other convenience in which to propagate flower- 
garden plants. 
Polyanthuses. — Those grown in beds should be 
looked to. See that the stems of the plants are not 
exposed ; if so, earth them well up to the foliage before 
frosts set in. 
Roses. —Plant, if the weather be mild. All Rose cul¬ 
tivators concur in recommending a highly-manured soil 
for them, with a thoroughly-drained subsoil. Each tree 
should be supplied with a mixture of turfy loam and half- 
decomposed dung—about one barrowful of the mixture 
to each tree. 
Tulips. —Place some sandy peat, or light soil, over 
the rising plants, in small cones, just as they emerge 
from the ground. It will be a great protection, if severe 
weather should set in, if done before they get so forward 
as to open, for then it would be of more injury than 
service to them. William Keane. 
CRYSTAL PALACE— January 11. 
Whether I went to see the grand, if not the grandest, 
poultry show 7 ; or the Christmas revels, and the children 
at sport; or the plumpudding and the cake ; or to find 
out that a word was wanting on one of the four full 
moons—the four welcomes—on the four corners of the 
naves, in the centre transept (the Highland welcome— 
read mille failllta —-wants one more word— dJtui — to make 
a meaning) ;—I say, whether I went to see all this, or 
the way they force for early flowers, or the state of the 
vegetation amohgst such gaities as go on here by gas¬ 
light, matters not,—I saw Mr. Eyles’ new house, and a 
splendid house it is—none of that size, or anything like 
it, was ever made, or so well put up, at so low a flgure. 
But it is a landlord’s house, to the last pane : it is fixed 
as firmly as the new r houses at the Experimental, and the 
roof is propped ; but there is no rafter, although the lights 
are tw r enty-two feet long, and all in one piece—that is, 
each light is in one whole piece, and the whole roof fixed. 
Since this house was in hand, and since the question of 
portable houses came to attract so much public notice, 
Sir Joseph Paxton has turned his attention to these 
portable stoves, where all things can be put to keep for 
the winter, and where most things could be grown in 
summer ; and which, if not wanted in summer, might be 
taken down as easily as iron bedsteads, and packed up in 
a corner under cover, or carried across the country, or 
the sea, to anywhere in Her Majesty’s dominions, with 
or without the ground landlord’s consent. Sir Joseph’s 
portable houses are to be span-roofed, with both sides of 
the roof fixed as firm as London or Gibraltar, and without 
rafters, props, or staybars : so that he, of all the in¬ 
ventors, comes the nearest to what we have proved, at 
Kingston, to be the best style and principle of building 
all kinds of plant houses. 
Then, to think of Sir Joseph Paxton having his fingers 
in the pie at his time of life, and at the beginning of the 
second Reform Bill ; but so it is, and so will the reform 
of hothouse building be established in this country and 
kingdom, as sure as fate. I thought Mr. Maccrostie’s 
was tlie best hit, till, in my mind’s eye, I saw that by Sir 
Joseph Paxton. But I can now see they are both best, 
and quite different. 
The Paxtonian portable structures, however, are yet 
to come, and Mr. Eyles is waiting for the sashes to 
arrive from London, where they are being made under 
Sir Joseph’s own eye. This is how the roof is to be. 
Each pair of lights is to meet at the ridge, on a bevel, 
which will allow them to fit each other quite close. The 
one has a screw stud, and the other an eye to receive it 
at top; and, when both are thus screwed, the next pair 
is set up to stand four, five, or six inches apart from tlie 
first pair. The coping to cover these openings between 
the lights are to be worked, or may be worked, on any of 
the simplest principles of giving air; and anything from 
half an inch to six inches of air may be given between 
1 each pair of lights, from top to bottom, and on both 
sides. How the lights are to be fastened at the bottom, 
depends on what the bottom is : they are otherwise lied 
together by the tie of the coping ; but that exact tie I 
cannot explain till I see the plan, or the roof itself. The 
principle is to be first proved by the fixing of a roof only 
to enclose fifteen or eighteen feet in width, and to run 
I the length of about 100 feet. The ground is ready for 
the roof, and there is a sunk path along the centre, which 
makes a level platform on each side, as in the new houses 
at the Clapton Nursery. These platforms are covered 
with ashes to stand the pots on. But plans of the whole 
will be published from Sir Joseph’s own hand, after the 
house is tested. 
