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APRIL. 103 
next the wall of the kitchen has been shut off with glazed shutters, 
which let down under the floor, and a pipe has been brought from the 
kitchen boiler through this glazed enclosure, which is again partitioned 
off into two divisions—on one side there is a small propagating house, 
for either cuttings or seed sowing; here I saw everything in a healthy 
state, seeds rapidly germinating and cuttings struck in a very few days 
after being put in; while on the other were the Camellias, making the 
most luxuriant growth possible, and rejoicing in constant syringing, and 
consequently in that nice moist heat which so facilitates their growth. 
Nor is this all. My friend knows how to combine the wziz/e with the 
dulce. Underneath the stage of this hothouse, far away out of sight, 
and in the dark, of course, he has his Rhubarb, and from the few plants 
there he has been pulling since Christmas-day (the Linneus he finds 
the earliest of all) ; and what particularly struck me was the very fine 
colour—quite a bright scarlet; and assuredly no one of taste could 
tolerate out-of-doors Rhubarb who has eaten the forced. 
Now when one considers that a great portion of this work is done 
without any extra expense, or if any, by only putting a few coals on 
the kitchen fire when going to bed, my friend may be said to have 
accomplished a great deal. The ingenuity, too, of his contrivances 
struck me; thus the tank is only brick, lined with cement. He was 
told the lateral pressure of so much water would burst it, and that it 
was labour in vain. But no; he knew better. And so, at an expense 
only of 30s. he has a never-failing supply of soft water, and at a tem- 
perature nearly equal to that of the house; and then there is a smaller 
cistern, which receives the over-supply, from whence he takes the 
water simply by dipping the flower-pot; while under the stage he has 
a place to put the syringe in, and take what he wants direct—all to 
save time, of which (being the zealous and devoted pastor of a large 
parish) he has not an overstock ; then again, shut up as he is within 
stone walls, he found that by simply erecting a temporary front stage 
his Geraniums would get the sun three weeks earlier than they would 
have done on their ordinary stage; and so one is put up immediately. 
Then in the north house he has a very pretty Fernery, with a little 
cascade, and some of our rarer English Ferns growing well on the pretty 
rockwork. In his potting shed, too, I noticed that the centre of the 
potting table is cut out, and fastened underneath, so that when the old 
stuff accumulates, instead of sweeping it off, he knocks down his little 
trap-door, and down the mould falls into the rubbish-box underneath. 
He is, moreover, a grower of Auriculas, but they have not benefited by 
.the smoky atmosphere, and by my advice he will transfer them, I 
think, to his kitchen garden. 5 
I have thus endeavoured to give a description of what I consider a 
very successful example of gardening under difficulties. The accom- 
panying sketches will perhaps make my bungling descriptions more 
clear; and I can only say, that should any gentlemen wish to follow in 
*Mr. Brock’s steps, he will not only give them any further information, 
but also will be very glad to show them his house, if they will venture 
so far north ; and this I will undertake to say, they will find him to be 
a true florist, liberal-minded, and willing in any way to help on_the 
craft. D. 
