230 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
growing in the open air from severe vicissitudes to which they 
would be otherwise subjected, and which would be yery injurious 
to their health, and especially to their flowering in the early 
part of the year or in the autumn. When the radiating heat 
raises the temperature of the air within the frame that air has a 
tendency to ascend and not to escape by the bottom of the 
frame : this gives a good hint as to the best means of protecting 
half-hardy shrubs from severe cold during the winter, in cases 
where they cannot be brought into the frame or greenhouse. 
Thatching up with fern, furze, or any other shrubby material, 
which is a bad conductor of heat, is probably the best method ; 
it may be continued down to the ground so as to protect the 
stem as well as the twigs and leaves, or buds, if the shrub is an 
evergreen. But this kind of covering is so complete and keeps 
the plants so warm that caution is necessary in removing it: 
that must not be done at once, or too soon, because the cover¬ 
ing renders the plant tender, and therefore easily affected by 
cold. Another good plan is to cover the plant with a cap of 
bast mat, but this should always be placed over the plant in the 
shape of a cone, with the base of course towards the ground, 
that the plant may have the benefit of the radiating heat, which 
is entirely lost if the ends of the mat are drawn close to the 
stem of the plant. 
If the plants are wintered in a frame they require little more 
attention, and there are modern improvements, by the adoption 
of which a maximum of benefit is obtained by a minimum of 
labour. The common wooden frame has no accommodation for 
flues, and therefore heating composts, the principal of which is 
stable manure, were the usual and almost the only means of ob¬ 
taining heat; fermentation, and consequently bottom heat, were 
generally over before the plants were put into the frames to 
winter, and though this has not been the case, a bottom heat, 
from fermenting manure, is not a good one for flowering plants : 
it stimulates the roots and gives out gaseous products, which are 
not favorable to the healthy growth of plants, and altogether 
such a stimulus makes the plants tender and easily subject to 
injury. Heat from warm water, which can also be made bottom 
heat, by having the pipes a short distance below the floor, or 
