Proceedings of the Horticultural Society. 193 



forced vegetable, but tlie health and vigour of a natural production of 

 the season. Upon inquiry, we learned that they had been obtained 

 in the garden of the Society in open bees, by practising a method 

 employed in all the north of Europe, although but little known 

 here. This consists in filling the alleys of common asparagus 

 beds with hot dung, and covering the beds with the same material, 

 protecting the whole with mats in bad weather. In this way an 

 artificial spring is produced, which stimulates the asparagus plant 

 into vegetation, and induces it to deveTope itself in precisely the 

 same manner as it would under the natural influence of an April 

 sun. This practice is not only far more effectual than the less per- 

 fect plan of trusting to damaged roots heaped in a hot-bed ; but is 

 also more economical, whether the excellence or the weight of the 

 produce is estimated. 



January Ibih, 



A paper by Mr. Seton upon the utility of temporary copings to 

 garden walls was read. The object of the author was to enforce 

 the necessity of intercepting the effects of terrestrial radiation upon 

 the blossoms of wall trees, in the clear cold nights of March, by inter- 

 posing a substance between the plants and the sky ; for this pur- 

 pose, the common plan of adapting, in a temporary manner, boards 

 to the front of a wall was recommended ; a plan which is un- 

 doubtedly efficacious, if the boards are 15 or 18 inches broad, but 

 which is of very doubtful value if they are much narrower. 



February bth. 



An extensive collection of American apples, received from New 

 York, was exhibited. As these were undoubtedly a favourable speci- 

 men of the growth of North America, it may be useful to point out to 

 our readers their true quality, at a time when a good deal of false 

 value is attached to the fruit of that country, through the assertions of 

 a certain political writer, who has found it profitable to sell the trees. 

 In the first place, they were, without any exception, handsome fruit, 

 particularly well grown, and neither over nor undersized. In the 

 second place, they were, even at this late period of the apple season, 

 quite sound, although they had sustained the disadvantage of having 

 travelled from New York in a barrel. In the third place, they were, 

 with two exceptions, sweetish, without acidity, or any agreeable fla- 

 vour. The exceptions were the Rhode Island Greening, and the 

 iEsopus Spitzenberg; the former of which is perhaps the mostdelici- 

 cious apple in the world. In those who had previously studied Ameri- 



JAN.— MARCH, 1823. 



