“FEBRUARY. 41 
will readily correct us for the good of the public. There is a wall all round 
the stove with a pit in the centre; all round the outside of this pit is a 
neat common flue, the pit being four or five bricks higher than the flue. 
On a level with these bricks, inside the pit all round, about three feet 
apart, are two inch tubes fixed into an air drain inside the pit; the fire 
is at the back of the stove, in the centre, passing under the path. On 
each side, and over the top of the fire, are places similar to soot doors, 
but open ; through these the air passes along and over the hot bricks 
forming the furnace, passing into the air drawn in the pit, feeds the zinc 
tubes, where it comes in quite a current. If moisture is wanted, 
water is poured down the tubes ; if less heat, a piece of slate is put on 
the tops, or a little hay is stuffed in. If the house requires smoking, a 
pot and some material is put in each hole by the furnace door and the 
house is full in a few minutes; only stop the holes when the house is 
full, as the smoke is soon driven out. ‘The pit is filled with leaves, or 
other plunging material, for any purpose it may be required. 
We will finish by calling the attention of every person who has a fire 
to keep up, to a furnace door, becoming general in this part, both for 
engines and houses; it is a complete smoke consumer, and can be 
put in any door. It consists of, first, an open grating in the centre 
of the door, similar to the grating in a walk drain, about one-fourth of 
an inch between each bar; inside of this a treble wire net of copper and 
iron is fixed. Some will say the wire will not last long—it will soon 
get burned. Nota bit of it; the air filters through the wire and sends 
the heat to where it is wanted; and so cool, that when the furnace is 
red a lady may hold her hand against the door, and what is better, it 
makes the fire the smoke consumer to perfection. It will be evident to 
any person at all conversant with this, that the present method of two 
doors—the lower to supply air—sends soot and smoke all up the 
chimney. Not so, this; it makes both serviceable for heating. 
F, 
AURICULAS—SPRING MANAGEMENT, &c. 
HAVING received several private communications on the subject of this 
flower, I have thought that perhaps my answers thereto, thrown into a 
short paper, might be of service to others as well as to those who have 
asked me. With regard to the proposed show, the prospects are, I am sorry 
to say, of a very ‘“‘ sketchy’’ character: from several friends the answer 
has come—‘“‘ We shall be very happy to subscribe;” but alas! coupled 
with the regret that they cannot exhibit. Now an Auricula show 
without Auriculas would be worse than Hamlet with the part of 
“Hamlet” left out; and even should it take place at the Botanic, or 
any other show, all interest in it would be at an end, if only one or two 
persons exhibited, and therefore I very much fear it will fall to the 
ground. This, I think, is to be attributed not to any want of real 
interest in the flower, but that the growers in the southern counties are 
few and far between, and that around the metropolis they are equally 
