THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 13, 1858. 227 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
HEATING 1 SMALL GREENHOUSE. 
“ I am erecting a house 25 feet long, 7 feet wide, 61 feet back, 
and 3a feet front wall, to be divided into two lengths of 
about 10 feet and 15 feet. I intend to heat a bed in the 
former, to propagate bedding or other plants; whilst the larger 
division will be used as a cool-house for stowing Geraniums, 
Fuchsias, &c., but with sufficient pipes to keep out frost in 
the winter-time. Will you have the goodness to inform me, 
what quantity of pipe will be requisite to obtain 70° to 80° of 
heat in the smaller house, and whether I ought to have pipes 
for top as well as for bottom heat P whether the pipes would 
do, as arranged in accompanying sketch, or whether a tank 
would be preferable to a pipe under the propagating bed? 
—Ed. Dewing. 
[Your house, or pit, has a close resemblance to one described 
by Mr. Fish, for Cucumber and Melon growing, and also, 
i more lately , for early Grape growing. 
1. The two four-inch pipes will be sufficient to keep frost 
out of the cool department. 
2. It will require double that quantity,—namely, forty feet,— 
to keep the smaller department up to 70° or 80° in cold weather, 
| in whiter or early spring. 
3. It matters not whether two of these pipes are placed for 
top heat, and two for bottom heat, or all are placed beneath 
your bed; but, in the latter case, you must have openings for 
! the heated air to get into the atmosphere of the house. 
4. Pipes are just as good as a tank under your propagating 
bed,—in your case, better,—as the water would go on better in 
the cool house when wanted. You could get moist vapour 
| from your tank, by having openings ; you may do the same 
from pipes, by placing water about them. 
5. Your slate covering would do well enough ; but then you 
would want a bed of sand, or tan, over the slate, in which to 
plunge your cutting pots. Why not form a concrete bed below 
your beds, surround them, and cover them with brick-bats and 
clinkers, so as to make a rough, open chamber ? Cover with 
! clean gravel, and then sand or tan. The slate woidd require 
, to be a foot from the pipes. 
6. A small flue would do for such a place, but not so well 
' as hot water. The flue would require to be perfect in the 
first division, and the heat let in to the cool division only 
when necessary. If this is not sufficient, write again.] 
i - 
DROMPTON AND QUEEN STOCKS. 
“ Is it the Brompton or the Queen biennial Stock, whose 
; flower is produced on a single stem ? I ask the question, because 
I find it stated, on the high authority of Mr. T. Appleby, 
Yol. XII., page 196, of The Cottage Garener, that the 
Brompton generally pioduces only single flower-stems , and 
hence its botanical specific name of simplicicaulis (simple 
stemmed). Whereas, in Yol. XY., page 152, of the same 
work, I find it asserted as boldly, that the Queen Stock is 
distinguished from the Brompton by its (the Queen's) flowers 
being produced on a single stem: hence its botanical name of 
Mathiola simplicicaulis (single stemmed) ! 
“ In answering this, you will, perhaps, be kind enough con¬ 
cisely to state what the difference really is between Brompton , 
Queen , and Giant biennial Stocks. 
“ Mr. T. Appleby, at the same page, made the following 
(to me) very interesting statement:—‘I saw, a few days ago, in 
\ a cottage garden, of very humble pretensions, a fine example 
! of this single-stemmed Stock. It was the scarlet variety, and 
' was growing in a very narrow border, close to the wall, under 
! the window. It was two feet and a half high; the spike of 
flowers measured fourteen inches, thickly set with blooms, 
j each almost as largo as a Provence Rose, and quito perfect 
j from the bottom of the spike to the top. The colour was also 
[ perfect,—not the least trace of variegation being visible. I 
understood it came up from self-sown seed, and had never 
been disturbed.’ 
“ This exactly answers the description of a noble kind of 
scarlet Stock, which used to be common in the gardens of our 
j glass-makers and pitmen; it being then popularly known as 
the Giant Stock, and was a great favourite. It seems to have 
vanished altogether from this locality ; and, as 1 am now 
desirous of procuring its re-appearance, I would feel thankful 
if you, or any of your correspondents, would inform me, 1 
through the medium of your columns, where, and from whom, j 
I can obtain genuine seed for the production of such a kind of j 
Stock as was seen, and so well described, by Mr. Appleby.”— 
T. S., South Shields. 
[In Messrs. Carter and Co.’s catalogue, for this year (a high 
I authority), the Brompton Stock is named Mathiola simplici- 
i caulis (simple stemmed) ; a native of England; a hardy 
biennial, growing three feet high. The Queen Stock is named 
in the same work as Mathiola incana (hoary leaved) ; also a 
native of England ; a hardy biennial, growing one foot and a 
half high. There is also a hybrid kind, which the same cata¬ 
logue names imperialis ; a hardy biennial, growing one foot 
and a half high. Of the two first there are three varieties,— 
namely, purple, scarlet, and white. Of the last, there are also 
three varieties,—described as purple, rosy carmine, and 
white. The Giant Stock is the Brompton. Our corre¬ 
spondent may obtain the seeds from that establishment, no 
doubt quite true. This explanation, we trust, will satisfy our 
correspondent, and set the question at rest as to the difference 
between the biennial stocks ; and we hope the mechanics he 
speaks of will soon obtain the Giant Stocks, and cultivate 
them as well as they ever did. 
It is almost too late now to sow the seeds ; but plants may 
be obtained from any respectable nursery, or from the stalls 
in Covent Garden: such plants will bloom next year. The 
seeds may still be ordered, and kept to sow next year. I have 
always found one-year-old seeds produce more double flowers 
than new seeds. This is a fact; though I cannot say why 
there is a larger number of double flowers in old seeds than 
in new ones. The seeds should be sown early in June, and 
transplanted to where they are to bloom in August. The soil 
should not be too rich, or the plants will grow so gross, and 
the stems be so full of sap, that the frost will be almost certain 
to kill them. Soil abounding in calcareous matter—in other 
words, limestone—is the best for biennial Stocks. In it they 
become more w T oody in the stem, and are less subject to va¬ 
riegated flowers. 
It would be a good plan to place some hoops over the bed 
of biennial Stocks ; and, in severe weather, to cover them with 
oiled canvass; not only to keep out the severe frost, but also 
to protect them from heavy snows and rains. There must be 
no transplanting in spring, for, by so doing, the blooms will 
be poor in spike and colour.—T. A.] 
CAUTION TO AD VERTISERS IN “ THE 
COTTAGE GARDENER,” 
I again beg to caution advertisers in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, against a set of swindlers at Manchester, who write 
for articles, promising a remittance by return ot post, which 
remittance, 1 need not say, the victim never receives. The 
applications are written in the most illiterate style, on engraved 
billheads. My advice to those persons, who receive orders 
from these worthies, is to pack up a tew bricks, or a dead cat, 
in an old box or hamper, and leave them to pay the carriage. 
—X. Y. Z. 
[YV T ho is “G. Clements, merchant, Manchester?” Let 
advertisers inquire.] 
ORIGIN OF SVYARMING. 
When we deal with any subject, about which theie is. no 
evidence which would lead to a definite or right conclusion, 
all we can do is to indulge in theory, and all such theorists 
are fully entitled to claim, for their particular theory, as 
much credit as those who indulge in an opposite opinion; 
unless, indeed, it should be drawn from something mon¬ 
strously fallacious. Acting under this impression, 1 indulged 
myself by theorising upon swarming, in the seventeenth 
volume of The Cottage Gardener, page- bO. 
I gave it as my opinion, that the idea of swarming did not 
originate with the queen. I knew I was here treading on 
