ART. VII. On the Cultivation and Improvement of Cineraria cruenta. By Mr. JAMES DRUMMOND, A. L.S. C. M. H.S. Curator of the Botanic Garden at Cork.

Sir,

THE different species of green-house Cinerarias are great favourites with me, and especially the C. cruenta (fig. 48.); for, besides the great beauty and variety in the flowers of the latter species, it produces them in the months of December, January, and February, when it has but few rivals in the green-house; and in the months of March and April its fine purple blossoms form a beautiful contrast with the Acacia decipiens, and other plants of that class; and, in my opinion, it surpasses even the hawthorn in the fragrance of its flowers; yet, from some cause or other, we seldom see it cultivated to the extent it merits. Should the following account of the method I have followed for some years of growing

this plant appear to you worth insertion in your valuable Magazine, it may turn the attention of some of your numerous readers to the cultivation of the C. cruenta, the effects of which will, in all probability, be the production of fine double and single varieties, of different colours, as it sports greatly from seed.

Except in cases when it becomes desirable to preserve any particular variety for its superior beauty, I prefer raising the C. cruenta every year from seeds, which the plant perfects with me in the months of April and May. Care should be taken to select the finest varieties, and those that produce the largest and finest heads or corymbs of flowers. The plants must be daily attended to when ripening their seed, as the flowers retain their beauty until the very day the seeds are scattered with the wind, a remarkable and valuable property in this fine winter flower. I sow the seeds immediately when ripe, in pots of light rich earth, and place them in a hot-bed. The plants come up very small and feeble at first, but as they get two or three leaves, I plant them singly in pots of the smallest size, and shift them, as I find they require it, into larger ones, giving them the same soil and treatment I give young balsams. By the first of October, if the plants have been well attended to during the summer, they will fill pots nine inches in diameter, and be throwing up strong flower-stalks from the centre of each. At this time I place them in an open part of the

green-house, and supply them occasionally with water, containing liquid manure, composed of soap-suds, and other matters, which I find of great service to the plants.

Cinerarias treated in this way begin to flower in December, and continue increasing in size and beauty for several months, until their corymbs reach a foot or eighteen inches in diameter. Such varieties of C. cruenta as I think worth preserving for more than one season, I cut down about the end of May, and place the pots on a dry shelf in the green-house, supplying them very sparingly with water. About the first of August re-pot them, dividing the roots, and treating them in other respects as I do seedling plants, but they rarely reach the size they do the first year from seeds.

The other green-house species of cineraria I cultivate are lanata (fig. 49. a), hybrida, geifolia (b), and amelloides (c): these I increase by cuttings, planted about midsummer, and treated in other respects as cruenta, my object being to have a few plants of each in flower with the latter. To have them in perfection, they should not be more than one year old; and they do not

require pots more than half the size of seedling cruentas. With hearty wishes for the success of the Gardener's Magazine, which is a great treat to persons situated as I am, in remote parts of the country, I am, Sir, &c.

Cork Botanic Garden, Oct. 18. 1826.

JAMES DRUMMOND.

ART. VIII. On the Plan of closing the Smoke Flues of Hothouses and other Buildings that are heated only in the Daytime, for the Purpose of preserving a Warm Temperature during the Night, &c. By Mr. WILLIAM FLAVEL, Ironmonger, Leamington Spa.

Sir,

YOUR Magazine (vol. i. p. 430.) contains some remarks on a paper by the Reverend George Swayne "On the Manage

ment of Hot-house Flues, so as to keep up a nearly equal Temperature during the Night;" upon which I take leave to offer a few remarks.

The plan of closing the chimnies of all buildings that are heated only in the day-time with a view to preserve a warm temperature during the night, was long since recommended by a practical writer to whom the sciences of agriculture and gardening owe much, Dr. James Anderson.

It was observed by Dr. A. (Recreations in Agriculture, &c. vol. ii. p. 155.) that "when a fire is suffered to die out and no means are employed to close the chimney, the warm air within it, instead of gradually communicating its heat to the cooler air of the room, rushes rapidly forward, until it reaches the open atmosphere, where it is dispersed and lost. A stream of cold air is from that moment forced up the chimney, to supply the place of that which is heated by the bricks as it passes along, and thus escapes upwards. In this way the whole chimney is, as it were, washed with a continued stream of cold air, and the heat that was in it, and which, without this washing, would have continued many hours, is carried off in the most rapid manner that could be devised." Hence the necessity (on the common plan of warming hot-houses and other buildings) for keeping the fires burning night and day, to prevent that alternation of heat and cold, which we are so desirous of guarding against; for, without continual fires, it will be perceived that the means we employ for obtaining warmth during the day, are equally adapted to produce cold during the night. The register grate does, indeed, afford some remedy for this evil; but if a damper were inserted in the flue, and closed at bed-time during the winter months, it is evident that much cold would be excluded; and, in the winter season, open chimnies for the purpose of ventilation will not be found necessary during the intervals of repose.

That great practical philosopher Count Rumford, more than thirty years ago, predicted that a time would come when open fires would disappear, even in our dwelling-houses and more elegant apartments.

"Genial warmth," he remarks, (in his tenth essay,)" can certainly be kept up, and perfect ventilation effected, much better without these than with them; and though I am myself still child enough to be pleased with the brilliant appearance of burning fuel, yet I cannot help thinking, that something else might be invented, equally attractive to draw my attention, and amuse my sight, that would be less injurious to my eyes, less expensive, and less attended with dirt, ashes, and other unwholesome and disagreable objects."

Various plans have been devised, pursuant to the Count's suggestion for warming and ventilating buildings, with a view to obtain more equable temperatures, the authors of which have also recommended the discontinuance of open fire-places. But open fires do not seem destined to disappear in the present age, although the improved methods of warming buildings (especially that of introducing air from without, and passing it in a current over a body of heated matter, and thence to the apartments required to be warmed,) are daily gaining ground. Let but our chimney-builders and grate

makers avail themselves of the information afforded by Dr. Anderson, Count Rumford, and other later writers, and let them so contrive their works, that they may be opened and closed at pleasure, and the most weighty objections of the new school to open fire-places will be obviated. Then may we expect that proposals for introducing streams of warm air (without at once giving up the occasional enjoyment of radiant heat from an open grate) will be favourably received by a numerous and enlightened class of persons.

In adwelling-house recently erected here, I have, besides open grates, introduced an apparatus by Mr. Boyce, author of "Remarks of the different Systems of warming and ventilating Buildings, 1826." This apparatus is so contrived, that the masses of heated matter between which the air is made to pass, retain, like a common oven, a high degree of heat for many hours after the fire is extinguished, so that any close building, warmed by it in the day, undergoes but little change of temperature during the night; indeed, on the following morning, streams of warm air continue to flow in through the valves provided for that purpose.

The plan is very simple, and its effect powerful beyond conception. Nothing appears to me so well adapted to the heating of hot-houses. No night-watching with it would be necessary; and little or no danger from negligence need be apprehended.

I am aware that Mr. Tredgold, in his excellent treatise on this subject, estimates the loss of heat from the extensive surface of glass required in a hot-house as unavoidable, and very great; and, to compensate for this loss, I would propose that the fire, instead of being suffered to die out in the evening, (as in a dwelling-house,) should be replenished with fuel, before the out-house is left for the night; in which case, a selfacting ventilator to regulate the temperature, as noticed in the Gardener's Magazine, (vol. i. p. 419.) might be useful. But, perhaps, a still better plan would be, when the fuel in the slove is in a red heat, and combustion has nearly ceased, to close the chimney by a damper, for the purpose of cutting off its communication with the external atmosphere, and thus to bottle up the heat, (if I may be allowed the expression,) on the plan recommended by Dr. Anderson.

Mr. Boyce uses no damper in the smoke-flue of his apparatus, but I am persuaded a damper might be applied with advantage; and the amount of its effect, it is my intention, at no distant period, to ascertain by experiment.

It is, I presume, no small advantage for horticultural purposes, that, upon this system, water may be evaporated, and taken up with the air, on its passage to, and before it enters, the hot-house, affording the means of making artificial dew, and of imitating the tropical climates.

Leamington Spa, Dec. 1. 1826.

I am, Sir, &c.

WILLIAM FLAVEL.

ART. IX. An improved Method of growing Celery. By Mr. George GledsTON, Gardener to Raleigh Trevelyan, Esq. at Netherwitton, Northumberland.

Sir,

AFTER upwards of thirty years practical experience, I most respectfully offer to your notice the following observations:

I know of no plant cultivated in the kitchen-garden more in request than celery (Apium graveolens), and none that has produced more disappointment, particularly when planted in dry sandy soil with a gravelly bottom. gravelly bottom. It ought to be im-. printed on the minds of all practical gardeners, that the plant in question, in its native state, is found in ditches and other wet situations. If the following method be put in practice, it will prove a complete remedy for the evil complained of.

Select a piece of ground in an open situation, if level the better. If the celery is grown in single trenches, they ought to be five feet apart; if six feet trenches, and planted across, leave five feet between. But to proceed with the single trench; this must be thrown out three feet wide and three and a half deep, place a stake in the centre at each end of the trench, make the bottom level, beat in clay regularly to the thickness of six inches: then lay two courses of stones or bricks lengthways of the trench, and parallel to each other, leaving a space of one foot six inches between. Each course ought to be eight or nine inches thick, and laid in lime mortar. The clay should be well pointed to the stones, to make all water tight, this being the only utility the clay and stones are intended for.

The trenches are now to be filled to the height of the stones, with a composition of strong clay loam, common earth, and rotten dung. Then pour in as much water as the trench will hold, making the whole a sort of puddle. It will be advisable to lay a slate or flat stone down the centre of each trench, to prevent the clay from being injured by any unskilful hand