A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

FOX 234 FRA
cient weight and power to divide the
air, and so being dashed against it, will
fall down in vapour or mist. If too
large it will not rise at all. The length
of pipe between the reservoir and the
jet will also impede its rising in a slight
degree, by the friction of the water on
the pipe. This is estimated at one foot
for every hundred yards from the reservoir.
The proportion which this author
gives to the ajutages, relatively to the
conducting-pipes, is one-fourth ; and
thus for a jet of four lines, a conducting-pipe
of an inch and a half diameter ;
for a jet of six or seven lines, a conducting-pipe
of two inches, and so on.
From these data, the height of the fountain
and the diameter of the conductingpipe
being given, the height to which a
jet can be forced can be estimated with
tolerable accuracy, and the contrary.
But where the pipes are already laid,
and the power of the head, owing to
intervening obstructions, is not very
accurately known, the method by trial
and correction by means of a leaden
nozzle, the orifice of which may be
readily increased or diminished, will
lead to the exact power under all the
circumstances.
Ajutages.— " Some are contrived so
as to throw up the water in the form of
sheaves, fans, showers, to support balls,
&c. Others to throw it out horizontally,
or in curved lines, according to the
taste of the designer; but the most
usual form is a simple opening to throw
the spout or jet upright. The grandest
jet of any is a perpendicular column issuing
from a rocky base, on which the
water falling produces a double effect
both of sound and visual display. A
jet rising from a naked tube in the middle
of a basin or canal, and the waters
falling on its smooth surface, is unnatural
without being artificially grand."
— Gard. Enc.
Drooping fountains, or such as bubbling
from their source trickle over the
edge of rocks, shells, or vases, combining
the cascade with the fountain, are
capable of much greater beauty.
FOXGLOVE. Digitalis.
FRACTURES. If an immaterial
branch is broken, it is best to remove
it entirely, but it sometimes happens
that a stem or branch which cannot be
replaced, is thus injured, in which case
and the stem or branch but small, the
parts will again unite by being put back
into their natural position, and well
propped up. Especially the cure may
be expected not to succeed if the fracture
is accompanied with contusion, or
if the stem or branch is large. And
even where it succeeds, the woody
fibres do not contribute to the union;
but the granular and herbaceous substance
only which exudes from between
the wood and liber, insinuating
itself into all interstices, and finally
becoming indurated in the wood. —
Keith.
Splints extending at least a foot above
and below the fracture, should be bound
very firmly all round, and a plaster of
grafting-clay to exclude wet be placed
over all ; and every precaution adopted
to prevent the surfaces of the wound
being moved by the force of the wind.
FRAGARIA. Fourteen species.
Hardy herbaceous. Seeds and runners.
Common soil. See Strawberry.
FRAMES are structures employed
either in forcing, or in protecting plants,
and are of various sizes.
According to the good practical rules
of Abercrombie : — " The one-light
frame maybe about four feet and a half
in width from back to front, and three
feet six inches the other way; fifteen
or eighteen inches high in the back,
and nine in front, with a glass sash or
light made to fit the top completely, to
slide up and down, and move away occasionally.
" The two-light frame may be seven
feet long, four and a half wide, and
fifteen or eighteen inches high in the
back, with bars reaching from it at top
to the front, serving both to strengthen
the frame and help to support the lights ;
the two lights to be each three feet six
inches wide, made to fit the top of the
frame exactly.
" The three-light frames should be
ten feet six inches long, four and a half
wide, and from eighteen inches to two
feet high in the back, and from nine to
twelve or fifteen inches in front—observing
that those designed principally
for the culture of melons, may be rather
deeper than for cucumbers, because
they generally require a greater depth
of mould or earth on the beds; though
frames, eighteen or twenty inches in
it is advisable to attempt a reduction of the back, and from nine to twelve in
the fracture ; and if it be only partial, ' front, are often made to serve occasion-