that even a considerable amount of heat
must be experienced: hence arises the importance of taking advantage of
every ray of sun which our climate affords, when the culture of the
Cucumber, or of any native of warmer latitudes, is attempted out of doors
in this country; and also of using every possibly available means of
increasing rather than diminishing the temperature of the soil: and hence
too, in forcing not only the Cucumber, but also every other plant which
requires to be submitted to a confined atmosphere, and an elevated
temperature, arises the necessity of providing such a degree of warmth at
the root, as may tend to keep its vital powers in a vigorous state of
action; it will effect this, by acting in conjunction with moisture, as a
solvent of the food which is primarily contained in the soil in a solid
form, but can only be taken up by the capillary action of the spongioles
of the roots, when converted into a fluid state. The science of Chemistry
has taught us that the ingredients composing the soil, act on, and
dissolve, and combine with each other in various ways, sometimes being
simply dissolved and held in solution, and at other times, entering into
new combinations, and forming new compounds; but in all cases, the natural
agents, heat and moisture, are necessary to produce these results, and to
present to the tender roots of plants, food so duly prepared, as to be
fit for their assimilation. Warmth in the soil, acts beneficially also, by
preventing the sudden or undue interruption of the excitability of plants
growing in it, which would be likely to result from the lowering of the
temperature of the plants by evaporation, were it not for the action of
the antagonist force, existing in and exercised by the heated soil, which
heat, is communicated to, and absorbed by the plants.

It may be regarded as an established and universal rule, that all plants
require the soil, and the atmosphere in which they are cultivated, to
correspond with the natural circumstances under which they flourish; and
as it has been repeatedly ascertained that the soil is naturally a degree
or two above the temperature of the atmosphere, we have certain and
unerring data for the application of bottom heat, and no more powerful
evidence than this can be desired, to condemn at once the application of a
_very powerful degree of heat_, at the roots of plants.

The importance of bottom heat in the culture of tender plants, being a
prac