TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 13, 1858. 
32 
sume, arc so built now. It was deemed essential in forcing- 
houses, to prevent bursting, and the escape ot smoke and gas. 
The plastering inside in old flues often caused explosions, 
| from pieces falling down, and stopping the draught. I have 
thus had a house of Cucumbers and Beans destroyed in a few 
minutes. I would, in every case, dispense entirely with in¬ 
side plastering. Eor forcing, I would be inclined to dispense 
with plastering inside and outside, butl would form the sides 
with bricks on bed, and use the very best sand and lime, and 
soak the best bricks properly before using them. Two bricks 
on bed, for each side, and covered with a twelve-inch tile, 
with thin tiles or slates below to cross the joint, would be 
ample for a small greenhouse. I mean going round the front 
and ends, without returning. In such a case, the heat would 
come chiefly from the top. Two bricks-on-edge would require 
a slight plastering on the outside, or a repeated thick brushing 
of new lime and sand and water. Deep flues for heating I 
consider about as profitable as deep tanks for hot water. 
Of course, the more smoky the coals used, the more room 
I must be given ; but in my small four-inch wide flues, I have 
never had any inconvenience. 
I hope these remarks will somewhat assist your corres¬ 
pondent, and that others will contribute their share to meet 
the case. For very large houses, or for an assemblage of 
houses near each other, the heating all from one boiler, with 
another boiler to fall back on, in case of accident, will be, in 
every sense, the best. For small detached cool greenhouses, 
some adaptation of the heating by flue will be the simplest 
and most economical.—R. Fish.] 
PROPAGATING AZALEAS. 
“ I have some young Azaleas which are sending up shoots 
from the bottom of their stems, and I should like to take 
them as cuttings, but do not know how to treat them.”—J. P. 
[If your Azaleas are of the Chinese kind, young shoots 
from the bottom, or from the sides, or top, will strike very 
freely. Let the cuttings be from one inch to three inches in 
length, but two inches is the best size for them, and if you 
could slip them out of their sockets, as it were, they would 
be like heeled cuttings, and do best that way. But, recollect, 
the whole cutting must be the growth of the same season. 
One half peat and one half sand is the compost to root 
Azalea cuttings in, with a layer of clean sand on the top ; and 
a bellglass over them, in a Cucumber bed, would soon root 
them. 
Be not deceived in your cuttings, however ; most of the 
bought pot Azaleas are grafted plants, the stocks being made 
of cuttings of the coarsest sorts, and as many cuttings as 
could be got with heels, were sure to be first made, because 
they give less trouble. It is one of the propei'ties of plants 
from pulled cuttings, that they throw up shoots from the 
bottom, therefore, the shoots from the bottom of your Azaleas 
may be from the stock, and not worth the trouble of striking. 
But every healthy Azalea will furnish cuttings about this time, 
from among the flowering shoots, so that there is no need to 
hazard the chance of stock cuttings. It will not hurt a plant 
in the smallest degree, to take one or two young shoots for 
cuttings from the tops of the main branches, when they are 
about two inches long.] 
_ 
POTTING OFF YERBENA CUTTINGS-SOWING 
IN SLIGHT HOTBED. 
“ I have a good many cuttings of Yerbenas, which I have 
kept in the pots in which they were first struck, through the 
j winter. Shall I pot them olf now ? I have kept them in a 
window, having no greenhouse ; they are thick in the pots. I 
have struck a few in a garden saucer, under a common finger 
glass, in my sitting-room, as recommended by Mr. Kidd in 
, your paper, and they seem rooting nicely. 
“ I wish to sow seeds in a slight heat now, and also strike 
cuttings, but have only a heap of leaves which have been laid 
up some time, but will not get hot. Will they be better than 
sowing the seeds in pots in the window, and putting a square 
ot glass on the top? ”—Grace Ansox. 
[Y e thoroughly congratulate you on your success, Such 
information as yours is very cheering. If you can command 
room, pot off your Yerbenas in small pots separately. If 
scarce of room, give a little more pot room, by placing your 
pot of struck cuttings into a larger pot, and do not divide 
until you plant out. Could you concoct any sort of earth 
pit, as mentioned the other week ? The plants would be 
better planted out, three or four inches apart, into light fibry 
soil, with a little leaf mould in it, and be covered with calico, 
with an extra protection in a cold night. After the first week 
in April they would do better than in the windows. 
Before adopting any of these plans, take off the tops of j 
them, and striko them as you have begun doing, on Mr. 
Kidd’s plan, but recollect if you strike in saucers in sand 
and water only , you must remove them, and pot them in very 
sandy soil, kept moist, as soon as they are rooted, or you may 
be disappointed afterwards. If you struck them in a pot, 
well drained, filled up rather better than half full with sandy 
soil, and covered with a square of glass, such plants might 
remain in the pots, if you liked, until planting-out time, or be 
turned out under the calico covering. There is nothing new 
in striking cuttings in the saucer in sand and water. The 
adaptation of the principle to striking cuttings in window's, as 
propounded by our old friend, Mr. Kidd, is decidedly new; 
at least, we never heard of the plan being recommended for 
window gardeners before ; therefore, for them it has all 
the merits of a discovery, and, as Mr. Beaton show's, for the 
younger branches of the household, it is a grand thing to be 
able to examine all about the rooting process, and yet not 
hurt the cuttings, by pulling them out and placing them 
in. So far as our experience goes, after success w ill greatly 
j depend on getting them out of the pure sand as soon as well 
struck. As the w'eather gets warmer, and if your leaves are 
neither too w r et nor too dry, they w ill be sure to heat, and 
would form a fine bed for your seeds, could you put a glass 
frame over the bed, and, perhaps, a covering of coal ashes 
over the leaves, in which to plunge your pots. Failing these 
accessories, and also protection for your frame in cold weather, 
we w'ould decidedly recommend you to sow the seeds in pots 
in the window, and cover with a square of glass. Cuttings 
will do, as you have already proved. A few of the tender 
seeds might be kept on a tray by themselves, and be moved 
to the neighbourhood of the chimney at night. You have 
already done so well, that we feel confident of your success, 
and shall be glad to hear of your progress. You will per¬ 
ceive, that could you move your old-established plants under 
other protection, you would have the windows for seeds and 
cuttings.] 
ORANGE TREES SHEDDING THEIR LEAYES. 
“ My Orange trees are planted out in the conservator)'. 
They were planted there last autumn twelve months. And 
last spring the leaves turned yellow, and fell off, and they 
are falling off this spring. They begun to turn at the tip of 
the leaf. They are pushing up young shoots and leaves; 
but the old leaves are all falling off, and the trees begin to 
look quite naked. Some of the Camellias are becoming so to. 
They were all planted at the same time, and in yellow loam, 
peat, and leaf soil. The conservatory is 120 feet long, by 23 
feet wide, and the end of it looks to the sea. Where it is 
built, used to be a dock where the salt water ran through. 
This was filled up with rubbish at the bottom, and a two-foot 
| wall at the end, to keep the water back. I have a large 
cistern in the front, that catches the rainwater, and a forcing 
pump inside to water with. The cistern was cemented at 
the sides and bottom, so as to keep the salt water out. Now, 
the south winds blow right on the flower garden, from the j 
sea, and into the conservatoiy when it is open. Do you 
think it is the sea air that injures the Orange trees ? They j 
are large, being nine feet high, and six or seven feet through. ! 
They came from France the summer before last. Some of ! 
the Camellias are nearly as high.”—A Constant Reader, | 
Branksea Island. 
[We can hardly make out some words of this communica- | 
lion, but from the description of the site of the large con- j 
servatory being, what was once an old dock, at Branksea ’ 
Island, and the fact, that the south winds from the sea blow 
right upon the conservatory, we have little doubt that the 
scorched-up appearance of the old leaves, and also of 
