196 
TI1E COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 26, 1860. 
a moveable roof of Fern branches tied to framework, or any 
other material that will throw off the heavy rain. Two objects 
are gained by this,—the Roses in pots are protected, and the space 
they would occupy in the greenhouse may bo filled with other 
kinds of plants in blown. As soon as the weather becomes more 
mild, the pots should be lifted out of their winter shelter, clean 
washed, worms looked for and destroyed, and the surfaco soil 
removed, and fresh soil applied. Then proceed to pruning, which 
must be my next subjeot. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued .) 
HEATING A SMALL GREENHOUSE. 
Wjll you give me your opinion about heating a small green¬ 
house? Span-roof, 16 feet by 10 feet, glass end but not sides. Its 
principal use to protect bedding plants through winter. Could 
I have all my hot-water pipes in an adjoining space, so as to use 
the stone shelf above that space for striking on—that is, covered 
with three inches of sand, and yet not have my greenhouse too 
hot for other things ? I could cover the enclosed space with glass 
like a common Cucumber-frame, if thought advisable. The next 
question I should be obliged by your answering is, If I have 
40 feet of four-inch pipes in that enclosed space, could I keep out 
the frost in winter by opening two doors—say 1 foot 6 inches 
by 2 feet, into that space which may be called the pipe-chamber? 
The above arrangement is like having a huge box 10 feet long, 
3 feet high, and 3 feet wide, at one end of my sixteen-feet- 
by-ten-feet greenhouse, the top of the box being used to strike 
cuttings, &c., the two doors at the side to let heat into the house. 
The pipes will be fixed to an open boiler in the saddle-room 
adjoining.— Abbaham Atkinson. 
[By your proposed plan, we have no doubt but that you will 
be able to exclude frost, by having openings in the chamber as 
you propose; but with your present arrangements your house 
will be much cooler at the glass end than where the pipes are 
situated. You may satisfy yourself of this, by sitting close to 
the parlour fire in a winter’s night: it will be much cosier there 
than at the farther extremity of the room. The difference will 
be greater in a glass-roofed and glass-ended greenhouse than in a 
dwelling-house. The heat from your openings will have a ten¬ 
dency to rise to the roof at the warm end, and to fall again when 
cooled, without making a complete circulation of the house. If 
the roof of the house, instead of being level, rose a little to the 
glass end, the circulation would be more complete. To make 
the heated air circulate better still, have the one or two openings 
near the top of your chamber, for the egress of heated air, and an 
opening at the bottom communicating with an earthenware-pipe 
drain—say seven or eight inches hi diameter, placed beneath the 
level of the floor, or under your stage, communicating with an 
open grating at the glass end. By this means when the air in 
the chamber or enclosed box is heated, it will be rarified, expand, 
and rise, and the cold air in the drain will be drawn up to supply 
its place. The cold air at the glass end will thus continuously be 
drawn through the grating and drain, and the heated air will 
follow along the roof and end to supply its place ; and thus a cir¬ 
culation will be maintained over the house, and the temperature 
will be much more uniform. When artificial heat is not wanted, 
keep the openings shut; and if desirous to be very correct, have 
also a slide of plate iron, or a slate, &c., to stop all current in the 
drain. If you cover your box or that end with glass, you may get 
a good heat underneath the glass without much influencing the 
house, except through the wall; but if more air is given at that part, 
greenhouse plants will thrive quite closo on the stage or shelf 
near to the heated end. Of course, the teudercst things should 
be placed at that end. So much as to improving your plan. 
Without something of the kind to insure rapid circulation, we 
think you may have some trouble, unless the roof of the house 
rose a little to the farther end, or the sides of your stone table 
were enclosed, by which means the two passages would act as 
return drains of cold air, and an opening should be placed 
opposite each of them into the chamber, to be opened or shut at 
pleasure, just like the opening at the top for letting out the 
heated air. 
These, for anything we know to the contrary, may be the best 
modes under the circumstances. We will ju3t instance another 
mode by which the same results might be obtained. Supposing, 
as in your case, that the heating boiler is au open one, that must 
determine the level of the pipes. We will suppose that there is 
room and a suitable level for pipes underneath the side-shelves. 
Then keeping economy as well as fitness in view, we would not 
have a stack of forty feet of four-inch pipes in the chamber, but 
would substitute for them a tank of bricks and cement, or iron, or 
slate—say two feet and a half wide, and six inches deep, covered 
with thin slate. Were there no doors in the way, we w'ould from 
this tank take a four-inch pipe all round the house, one end 
being inserted at the top of the tank, and the other at the bottom. 
A simple wooden plug would shut off the circulation at pleasure. 
If there were a doorway at the glass end, which we suspect, then 
two two-inch or three-inch pipes on each side would serve the 
same purpose. The tank could thus be heated independently of 
the pipes, and the temperature in the house could uot help 
being somewhat uniform. With the earthenware drain, or the 
side-paths made to answer as such, your own plan will answer; 
but we have doubts if you have only openings to let out hot air, 
and none by which cold air can bo drawn in easily and syste¬ 
matically.] 
SKIMMIA JAPONICA BERRIES AND 
BOUVARDIA CULTURE. 
I BOUGHT a plant of Skimrnia Japonica two years ago. The 
first year I cut it back, and had three shoots ; these shoots all 
flowered this spring. I was surprised to see after the flowers 
dropped off an appearance of berries. These are now as large as 
a moderate-sized Pea. Will these berries produce seeds? It 
not, should they be cut off to allow the plant to make young 
wood ? 
Having read of Bouvardias beiug showy plants, I have just 
bought three varieties; but they are so small in the wood, and 
weak, that I am disappointed, and much discouraged. I have 
found in the number for April 3, page 14, an answer on the 
culture of Bouvardias. The remarks are good; but the plants 
I have I fear will never be equal in growth to Fuchsias. My 
Fuchsias are very strong in growth. I shall be obliged if any 
more advice can be given than in the April number.—M. F. 
[The Cottage Gaedenee first took up Skimmia Japonica for 
the coral brilliancy of its berries during the winter; and if you 
pick them off for some fancy of your own, pray do so, but say 
nothing about it, lest others should take to similarly spoiling the 
plant’s beauty. It is a dwarf plant naturally, and very slow of 
growth, and a handful of bonnie berries will not hurt in the least. 
Sow the berries in February, or as soon as they are ripe, and you 
will have Skimmias enough to make a cover for game under the 
large trees some day. 
Bouvardias are worth all the care you can give them. Turn 
them out now into a good bed or border of light, rich stuff, and 
no matter how small they are, they will soon tell another tale. 
But it is a daft thing for anybody to attempt to grow them up 
to the mark in pots, as compared to their health and vigour out 
of doors ; but take them up in October, and keep them then 
like young Fuchsias.] 
A MINIATURE CUTTING-HOUSE— 
PROLIFEROUS MUSHROOM. 
In gardens where there is no cutting-house or pit, a difficulty 
is often experienced in the first months of the year in preparing 
the heating materials for the frame in which the spring cuttings 
arc to be struck, more especially wlieu no shed is at hand to keep 
the same dry. 
The following simple construction will save this trouble. In 
describing the following I doubt not that to many of my fellow 
gardeners it will be nothing new, certainly not in principle. 
Those in possession of a pit, a light from which can possibly 
bo spared, could alter it as below with trifling expense and little 
trouble. 
First, divide the light from the other part of the pit by putting 
a brick-wide division from the foundation up to the rafter. 
Should the pit be one devoid of pigeon-holes for heating, by 
knocking a few bricks out carefully at equal distances, this re¬ 
quirement is easily obtained. By placing lasting pieces of timber 
one at the back and one in front, one end worked into the brick 
division, the other inserted into the outer wall, upon these placing 
other pieces from back to front, at distances to be under the 
joints of the to-be-flooring of the frame, a foundation for the 
same having been secured, slutes two or three thick might be 
used; but the best and most secure you can put are square 
