THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
239 
pipes should be used, so as to have the water cold or 
nearly cold when it came back to the boiler. We all 
know now that each and all of these principles were 
wrong, and I well remember how much disappointment 
was occasioned by the many failures. Very often the 
best cultivators at that time said that flues were best 
after all, and they did not want any hot water. 
It is useless for me to-day to ask which is the best, 
hot water or flues ? As I have stated, however, hot 
water has had a fight for the position it holds. The pro¬ 
gress steam-heating has made during the past six years 
leads many to think that it is the true method of heating 
and that hot water must go. How far this is true time 
will tell : we cannot help feeling that there is a good deal 
of truth in the statements made for it and that many es¬ 
tablishments are most successfully heated; on the other 
hand, we have to admit some failures as great as were 
the failures in hot water on its first introduction. With 
this introduction I feel that I have opened the case and 
will leave this matter in the hands of the advocates on 
either side. It may be well to mention the laws regard¬ 
ing heat, and which must be borne in mind whether the 
heating apparatus is one of hot water or one of steam. 
It is an established fact that not more than a certain 
amount of heat can be extracted from a given quantity 
of fuel, in all cases the best is the cheapest. It is also an 
established fact that the fewer impediments put in the 
way of extraction the more satisfactory are the results. 
By the same rule the more complete the apparatus used, 
the one possessing the most economical distribution of 
the heat engendered, is the best. The more complete the 
circulation without friction or other difficulties, in propor¬ 
tion will the success or failure of either hot water or 
steam-heating be. The details of erection will be better 
discussed as the case proceeds. I feel certain that this 
topic will be thoroughly ventilated, and that we shall all 
be benefited thereby.— John Thorpe , at the Florists 
Convention. 
DISEASES OF PLANTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 
Read before the Society of American Florists, at the Annual Convention, held in Cincinnati August 12, 13 and 14, 1885. 
I N my observation, very few plants are attacked by in¬ 
sects or disease when in vigorous health. It is only 
when the vitality is impaired or the growth checked by 
any cause that they strike. Red spider rarely troubles 
plants when growing strongly, and even the mealy bug 
seems to pursue his ravages more vigorously when growth 
is slower during the winter months. As instances of this, 
we find the coleus is badly injured in midwinter by 
mealy bug, but outgrows their attacks in spring and sum¬ 
mer. Bouvardia is another case in point, being one of 
the worst plants we have for the mealy bug, yet when 
spring comes, and plant vigor asserts itself, they seem to 
a great extent to disappear. Mildew attacks your roses 
when a ventilator is raised carelessly on a cold, raw day, 
and the chilling air strikes down on the soft growth, 
checking the flowing sap and leaving the plant in a debili¬ 
tated condition, which invites the fungus known under 
this name. A marked instance of this occurred in our 
place years ago. We had a house filled with hybrid roses 
in full leaf and just showing bud; the house was venti¬ 
lated by old-fashioned square ventilators that slid up and 
down. One afternoon they were carelessly left open too 
long, and the plants under the openings were slightly 
frozen. The frost apparently did but little injury, but in 
two days the plants that had been under the openings 
were completely covered with mildew, while the rest of 
the house was comparatively free from it. This showed 
conclusively that the affected plants were made liable to 
the mildew by having their vitality checked by the slight 
frost. Of late years, one of the most annoying diseases 
attacking plants is that affecting the carnation, and it is 
undoubtedly caused by working our stock year after year 
at a high temperature, which weakens the general vitality, 
and the disease, be it a fungus or an insect, quickly fol¬ 
lows. In the fall of 1883 we had a surplus of two varie¬ 
ties of carnations, and rather than throw them away, we 
“ heeled ” them in a cold frame, putting straw mats on 
the glass in extreme weather. They wintered well, and 
in March we put in a few hundred cuttings of each. We 
marked them, and last winter they were the best plants 
we had, not one of them dying off, while we lost hundreds 
of the same kinds in our regular stock ; and I firmly 
believe that if this plan was adopted of wintering carna¬ 
tions intended for propagation that the “ carnation dis¬ 
ease ” would disappear. We have practised for years 
another and perhaps more practicable way of avoiding 
the difficulty, and that is to propagate our young stock as 
early as possible in the winter, and after the plants have 
become established, knocking them out of the pots and 
putting them in shallow boxes in cold frames. This 
gives them some of the needed rest, and the good effect 
is very marked. This theory of weakened vitality being 
the cause and not the consequence of most plant diseases 
is, perhaps, best borne out in the case of the “ black 
rust, or verbena rust.” 
It is a common mistake for growers to use for planting 
out such plants of verbenas as have been propagated in 
midwinter. These plants are usually held in the same 
pots long after they become pot-bound, and consequently 
are stunted and perhaps diseased when set out. Al¬ 
though they may appear to grow strongly at first, yet the 
taint is there, and when midsummer comes, with its pro¬ 
tracted spells of heat and drouth, the vigor is gone com¬ 
pletely, and the insect producing the disease we call 
“ rust” appears in myriads. The true plan is to use for 
planting the last propagated plants in spring; these sus¬ 
taining no check, grow right along until midsummer, 
when it is necessary to cut them severely back, and fork 
