172 Transactions of the 



which the suppression of the terminal leaflet has tJiken place 

 and the lateral ones have been preserved. In change of colour, 

 too, there is a circumstance which demands consideration, and 

 of which no explanation has yet been offered. It is not ge- 

 nerally known, although long ago noticed by M. De Candolle, 

 that among flowers, yellows will not produce blues, nor 

 blues yellows, although both these primitive colours will 

 sport mto almost every other hue. Thus the hyacinth, the 

 natural colour of which is blue, will not produce a yellow, 

 for the dull, half-green flowers called yellow hyacinths, are, 

 in our judgment, whites approaching green ; the blue crocus 

 will not vary into yellow, nor the yellow into blue ; and the 

 ranunculus and the dahlia, the natural colour of both which, 

 notwithstanding the popular belief to the contrary, with 

 respect to the dahlia, is, we believe, yellow, although they, 

 are the most sportive of all the flowers of the gardens, vary- 

 ing from pink to scarlet, and deepest shades of purple, have 

 never yet been seen to exhibit any disposition to become blue. 

 This subject offers a most amusing field for investigation, 

 and would well repay the attentive consideration of the phi« 



XV. On the Cultivation of Camellias in an open Border. By Mr* 



Joseph Harrison. 



Mr. H . finds that the double red camellia, the double white, and 

 the double striped, will bear an English winter if planted out 

 when about two feet high, having been previously stunted in 

 their growth by repeatedly stopping their leading shoots. 

 For two winters the young plants are to be protected by a 

 wooden screen fixed round them, and covered by a hand-glass, 

 the whole being enveloped in mats ; afterwards they require 

 no other protection than to be guarded from heavy snow- 

 storms, and to be assisted by a thick covering of old tan upon 

 the ground in which they grow, to the distance of two or 

 three feet from their stems. If this success has been met with 

 in Yorkshire, what may not be expected in our more southern 

 counties ! On the 12th of March of the present year, these 

 camellias were not injured by a frost whic|i did considerable 

 damage to the common laurel. . ' ^ , , ; ., 



XVI. A Method of growing Crops of Melons on open Borders. By Mr. 



William Greenshields. 



The sorts fitted for this purpose are the black rock, scarlet 

 rock, green-fleshed, netted and early Cantaloup melons. The 

 method consists of forming a bed, by half filling a shallow 



