320 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Febkttaet 22, 1859. 
undoubtedly and unmistakeably, Lobelia speciosa. A 
thousand plants of it will be needed, towards the end of 
next May, for every old plant of it in the country. They 
are pushing it on now, in the nurseries round London, 
like wild-fire. One here and there has a good stock of it; 
but the great cry has been, since the beginning of the [ 
new year, a dread of a short supply. The old plants of ! 
it did not do so well last autumn. It was too late ere it 
began to make nought but “ flowering wood and the 
winter has been so fresh, so mild, and so muggy, that the 
new growth damped off in cold pits, and the next start is 
weak for the first cuttings. In other cases, the demand i 
for it last May was so great, that it was “ sold out” in 
many of the nurseries, where they have only now a low 
figure of August-put-in cuttings to get their whole stocks 
from. The only way to make sure of a full supply of it, 
therefore, must be from seeds ; and the seeds of Lobelia 
speciosa must be, and will be, the earliest to sow in all 
the March sowings. Not a day must be lost after the 
cutting-bed is made up, or the Cucumber, or propagation- | 
bed. But the best bed of all, for getting up very delicate 
seeds, by very moderate gardeners, is the Waltonian 
Case. 
Mr. Walton himself, and more especially Mrs. Walton, 
would beat Sir Joseph Paxton, and Air. Flemming, and 
Mr. Somebody-else, at raising the very smallest seedlings 
by the “ Case.” But this year the garden is more than j 
twice the size, the framing-ground four times larger than 
formerly, and yet Air. Walton’s gardener told me the 
other day, that “that case” was sufficient to raise 
“ stock ” for four gardens of that size. I also heard that 
Mr. West made a “wonderful improvement” on the 
Waltonian Case ; and I expected, Suffolk-like, that I 
should have a drawing, or working plan of it, to come in 
with the portable greenhouses ; but I find it is now tied 
in the Queen’s name ; so that, even I, who am its lawful 
godfather, cannot put a finger on it. 
“ You may draw Cabbage plants, and you can draw 
Radishes and Dutch hoes, but no more drawings of the 
Waltonian,” is all the answer I could get; but I gleaned 
so much, and guessed so much more about all this, that 
the case has been both simplified and made stouter and 
stronger, and quite different, but on the same principle 
as the first; that some parties had bungled the thing about 
London; and that the new edition had been “ registered,” 
to save it from the same fate. I saw the process, from 
the cutting of the zinc sheet, to the lamp being ready to 
light; and I was promised a sight of a drawing-room one, 
which is painted, grained, and varnished, or polished, I 
forget which. But the truth is, I always so set my face 
against patents for garden things, that I would drive a 
carriage and four right through the best Patent Act: aud 
any of my friends who chanced or risked their lives or 
fortunes on the “ Act,” would get the weight of my 
wheels with as good will as if they were Russians or Red 
Indians. 
I expected also to be able, by this time, to announce 
another new feat in gardening—a portable gas stove to 
stand up seven feet above the surface of the earth, away 
from the landlords, and to heat by a new system of the 
circulation of hot water; that is, the principle of the hot- 
water system applied quite differently from any that has 
yet been suggested. But that, also, is, or is to be, re¬ 
gistered immediately, aud must stand over till we feel 
winter again. But I saw the apparatus in full play last 
November, when we had that severe cold, in a gentle¬ 
man’s conservatory nearly opposite the Palace of Hamp¬ 
ton Court. Since then, however, there was no cold to 
signify, or to test the advantage of the new mode which 
was got up for a London architect, who wanted “ some¬ 
thing more simple, more cheap, and more in the drawing¬ 
room style” than he could get about London. AVhat I 
recollect is, being taken down to the lower regions, 
across some passages, and at last came to a hot place 
smelling of salt and sulphur. The place was an under¬ 
ground back kitchen, where the baking, the boiling, and 
the roasting were done with gas. The gasometer was in 
one corner, and a roaring of gas. overhead in a stove-like 
case. This was the contrivance for healing the con¬ 
servatory on the ground-iloor above us. A very small 
jet of gas was let loose in a tube ; and, at the top of the 
tube, it passed through a wire-net, roaring and spreading 
itself to six or ten times its former volume as it passed 
the net. The flame then played on a srrrface, or rather 
on two surfaces, just like two small saucepans inverted, 
and the one inside the other. The two saucepans would 
not hold three gallons of water; but they made the 
boiler, and the gas made the fire for it. An inch-pipe 
for a flow, and another for a return, like the two handles 
of the saucepans, went across through a division-wall, 
then up, and through the ceiling. But ere we get up 
stairs, let me remark, that the watcher in this lower 
region, was very different from those in another place, 
as yo.u read in books : but whether it was from our praising 
everything for being so clean, clear, and tidy, so early in 
the day ; .or from her being naturally of a good temper; 
or from the fact of the gardener having to be there late 
and early, to look to his fire, it is not easy to say ; but 
I never yet met a cook, in such a place, who was in 
better humour, or spoke better of these out-of-the-way 
things, or of “ master who was so fond of gas.” No 
trouble to cook with gas according to her tale. 
The conservatory is exactly in the wrong place, begging 
the architect’s pardon—facing the north pole, or a little 
to the east of it; and the harness-room of the stable, or 
coach-yard, which corresponds with the conservatory, on 
the same axis, faces the meridian of.that part. Without 
one farthing more expense, or an inch more of space, 
this pile might have been the very best of its kind; and 
yet a first-rate architect has made it as unenjoyable as art 
could make it, save that for two months in the height of 
summer, the drawing-room, aud the conservator}' out of 
it, are just cool enough to be comfortable. 
At one corner of the door, as you enter this conserva¬ 
tory, in come the two handles of the saucepans, from 
the scullery below: and all round the house a skirting- 
boai’d of iron runs, which, board-like in looks, is one 
inch thick on the top ; the bottom comes in to “ nothing 
and the depth is nine inches. It is full of water, which 
circulates without a flow-and-ebb division. The principle 
is, that the hottest water keeps in the top of the wedge, 
or thick end, a wedge being the section of that kind of 
pipe ; the cold water returns in the bottom, or sharp end, 
of the wedge. This kind of pipe gives eighteen inches 
of surface all round. It is made by doubling an eighteen- 
inch breadth of sheet iron, and riveting the edges, then 
plunging them into the galvanised tank, and they come out 
silvered and ready for use. They are in six-feet lengths, 
and united in a way I forget; but they then answered 
perfectly, and would do so all along if there were need of 
heat. 
From the same jet of gas, and the same saucepans, an 
inch flow-and-return went to the front hall to heat a 
stack of similar flat pipes, which tilted into an ornamental 
cast-iron stand at the side of the grand staircase; and if 
more heat were needed, I believe a common batswing jet 
of gas, such as is used in street lamps, could be made to 
assume a column shape one foot in diameter, to play on 
the bottom of the boiler. Then it follows, that the best 
kind of heat for plants, and for those who like them, has 
been obtained at last from the use of gas, without any of 
its risks. Whether the plan is, or will be, cheaper than 
coke or coals, the frost was not good enough to prove 
since the invention was applied; and the scheme is re¬ 
gistered to come out next winter, or next March, which 
may mean the same thing ; so it is out of my beat to give 
any sort of drawing of it. I had no authority to say a 
syllable about it ; but, like the AValtonian Case, and Air. 
West, the manufacturer of it, when I know a plan to be 
thoroughly good, and people send for me to see it, 1 shall 
