256 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 24, I860. 
alone. A span-roofed house is the best form—the doors at each 
end, a pit hi the centre, and platforms nest the front lights, with 
the walk or paths between the pit and the platform. The air¬ 
giving means should consist of sliding-doors under the platforms, 
and ventilators on the highest part of the roof. The means of 
giving air should be so arranged that plenty can be admitted 
when the weather will permit. 
The pit should be filled either with leaves or spent tanners’ 
bark. By plunging the pots iu a moderately warm bottom heat 
root action will commence at once, and the Rose trees will shoot 
forth more strongly in consequence. The bushes on the plat¬ 
forms will be slowly advancing, and will take the place of those 
plunged in the pit when they are in flower. The best mode of 
healing this forcing ltose-house is with hot-water pipes under the 
platform. They should commence at one end, and return back 
to the boiler. If the upper pipes have troughs fixed on them 
they can be filled with water, which will give out a gentle mois¬ 
ture to the air, and this will greatly assist the Roses to grow 
strong, as well as keeping down the red spider. Such a house so 
built and so heated will be found to be excellent for forcing 
Roses, or indeed any other hardy shrub. 
Preparing the Rose Teles in Pots fob Forcing.— To 
make more sure of success the plants should be so prepared as 
to be, as I may say, ready and eager to grow. The wood should 
be well matured, and in order to render it so the plants should 
be strong and well established in their pots twelve months pre¬ 
vious to being set to work to bloom early. Toward the end 
of the summer the pots should be lifted out of the ground, and 
placed in a warm situation on ashes, and no more water given 
than will just keep them from flagging. This will ripen the wood, 
and fill tlie buds with the right sap to produce flowers. At this 
time the superfluous shoots may be thinned out, but leave the 
rest till further on in the season ; then, before the heavy rains of 
autumn set in, place the plants in a cold pit, or under a 113 ' kind 
of shelter that will throw off the rains. In this situation keep 
them rather dry, and about a fortnight before they are to be 
taken into the forcing-house, prune the number required; and 
when the time arrives take them from under the shelter. Wash 
the pots clean; see that the drainage is perfect, and then top 
dress them by taking off the old soil on the surface, and laying on 
a coating of very well decomposed dung and loam in equal parts ; 
then give a gentle watering with lukewarm water, and take them 
into the forcing-house. 
The management there will consist of giving a gentle heat at 
first—say, 50° by day, and 45° by night. This heat may be in¬ 
creased in three weeks ten degrees, and then a gentle syringing 
over the swelling buds will be of great service. But little water 
at the root will be necessary at first; but as the leaves begin to 
expand more will be required. It should always at this incle¬ 
ment season of the year be used in a tepid state, rather warmer 
than the heat of the house. When the flower-buds begin to 
show, an occasional watering of liquid manure will be of service. 
It may be made either with guano or fowls’ dung mixed with soot. 
Air , I need scarcely mention, should be given daily if the 
weather is mild. Change of air is absolutely necessary; therefore, 
pay great attention to this point. The ah’ given at the sides of 
the house will pass over the pipes and thus become aerated and 
mild when it reaches the leaves of the plants. The best time to 
commence forcing is about Christmas—that is, for the general 
early crop of flowers; but for blooms, during December and 
January. Hybrid Berpetual Roses should have all the buds 
nipped off and be pruned in September, and then buds will be 
formed and blooms produced in winter. This I name retarding 
rather than forcing ; for this bloom belongs, in fact, to the latter 
end of the previous year. These plants should be placed in a cold 
pit well aired, to keep them back till they are required to be put 
into the forcing-house in October, November, and December, 
according to the forwardness of their blooms. 
Insects. —These prevail in a forcing-house as well as out of 
doors, and are equally mischievous to plants, especially to Roses. 
First in mischief is the green Jig. It generally makes its ap¬ 
pearance on the stems of the young Rose-buds. Good tobacco 
paper, burnt cautiously in the house, is a most effectual remedy. 
The operator, however, should never leave it till it is completely 
consumed; for if left, and it should break forth into a flame, he 
may bid good-bye to liis hoped-for crop of Rose-blooms. Common 
tobacco, if neglected in using, is equally dangerous ; yet if pro¬ 
perly and carefully used both are safe. For my own use I prefer 
good tobacco paper. I use a strong garden-pot with a hole in 
the side towards the bottom. Up to the hole I fill with red hot 
cinders, and upon them I lay the tobacco. If it is very dry 1 
just damp it; then I blow in at the hole with a pair of bellows, 
and immediately a thick cloud of smoko arises, which spreads out 
and quickly fills the house. No sooner is this effected than the pot 
is removed out, and the house left closed for the night. In the 
morning I generally find all the green flies dead, and even 
thrips, if any are in the house, also. With this method and 
care, I never had any scorched leaves. The eggs of this insect no 
smoke will destroy, but as soon as they come to life a second 
smoking destroys them. 
Grubs and caterpillars very frequently make their appearance 
on Roses in pots when growing iu the Rose-house or greenhouse. 
If not destroyed they will eat out the very end of the shoo's, 
thus destroying the bloom as well as disfiguring the form of the 
plants. They will appear on the Roses plunged iu the bed in the 
open air. The most certain way of destroying them is that of 
crushing them with the finger and thumb, and this should be 
done before the mischief is perpetrated. Tobacco smoke will 
search out the most secret haunts of these pests and destroy 
them. A temporary awning impervious to the smoke should be 
placed over the plants in the bed, and the space so enclosed filled 
densely with tobacco smoke. This will destroy all living at the 
time, and should be repeated as the eggs are hatched. 
Heel Spider. —If the air in the house has been kept dry this 
tiny enemy will appear. Syringe with sulphur water, and keep 
up a moisture in the air for a time, and it may be destroyed also. 
Mildew.— This is a formidable enemy, but even it may be kept 
under by dusting the leaves affected with flowers of sulphur. 
Mildew is caused, or at any rate greatly encouraged, by a cold, 
damp atmosphere. The remedy for this is to warm the air, and 
keep the floors and walls dry. Light a fire earl}’ in the morning ; 
and as soon as the internal air is warmed open the top light or 
ventilators, and thus drive out the cold and damp together. This 
generous treatment, together with an application or two of sul¬ 
phur, will clear your plants of mildew’. T. Appleby, 
(To be continued.) 
NEW LYCOPODS. 
Salaginella ATEO-vibidis. Lycopodiacece. —Tins is a dis¬ 
tinct-looking species, green, with flabellately-arranged branches, 
which are ramified in a dichotomous manner, and recurved at the 
tips. It appears to be a dwarf kind, and to have most resemblance 
in habit to the kind known as S. Pceppigiana in gardens, but is 
quite distinct from that and every other kind. Introduced from 
Borneo by Messrs. Yeilch Sp Son. 
Salaginella Lobbii. Lycopodiacece. —A new and extremely 
ornamental Lycopod of tall-growing habit, the main stems pro¬ 
ducing alternate branches, which, from being quite flat and pin- 
nately branched, and having the branchlets close-placed, have 
much resemblance to Fern fronds ; these branches are of a fine 
blue metallic tint, similar to that which occurs in some other 
species of this family. Introduced from Borneo by Messrs. 
Veitch S( Son .— T. M; 
EPACEIS. 
MINUTLE OF CULTURE. 
These will be confined chiefly to meet the inquiries of 
“ Saltekton,” to which already some attention has been given, 
and with the hope that they may be found suitable to a large 
class of amateurs with limited means and accommodation, and 
who might wish to have their little greenhouses gay in early 
spring, and the first days of summer. These Epacrises, which 
may be considered as the Heaths of Australia, are much more 
accommodating than Ericas, the true Heaths of South Africa, as 
they will pass uninjured in an atmosphere that would not dis¬ 
agree with a general collection, when the Heath proper would be 
ruined for want of a current of fresh air, and, in consequence, 
become a prey to mildew with all its attendant evils. Both in 
their native countries are found to thrive best in open, exposed 
situations. Both are exposed to heavy rams at times ; but also 
to long periods of bright sunshine and very warm weather. The 
one excites rapidity of growth, the other ripens and consolidates 
the wood. Such modes may be followed in this country by the 
experienced, in the case of both families ; but the inexperienced 
would be apt to find, that in a close, warm atmosphere, the 
Heath would become lanky and encrusted with mildew, whilst 
the Epacris would maintain its health and vigour. In other 
