70 



NEW MODE OF RIPENING FOREIGN GRAPES. 



alburn is a iniic white: each variety with 

 reflexed petals. Hybrids have been pro- 

 duced between these species, and a number 

 of new varieties have been obtained, all 

 exquisitely beautiful. We have seen spe- 

 cimens, four or five feet high, with over 

 twenty buds and flowers. 



I have thus given a faint description of 

 most of the Lily family that have come 

 under my observation. They are all beau- 

 tiful, easy of cultivation, and will give 

 much satisfaction to the florist when wftll 

 managed. Joseph Breck. 



Uuston, June 30, 1346. 



NEW MODE OF RIPENING FOREIGN GRAPES. 



Dear Sir — I send you an engraving of a 

 novel kind of bell-glass, much used in Hol- 

 land for ripening the finer sorts of grapes 

 in the open air. The following account of 

 it may also interest your readers, for which 

 I am indebted to the Horticultural Review 

 of Paris, 



This bell-glass 1 as an opening at the top, 

 with its edge turned over in the form of a 

 collar. After it is slipped over the bunch 

 of grapes, it is held in its place by a wire, 

 which is passed round the collar, and 

 then fixed to the nearest part of the trellis 

 or vine branch. The cluster is usually in- 

 troduced into the bell-glass as soon as the 

 grapes are well formed, though it is often 

 delayed as long as possible; that is, till the 

 bunch is in danger of growing so large, 

 that it will not enter the opening in the up- 

 per end of the bell. 



Long experience, it is said, has thorough- 

 ly proved the good effect of this kind of 

 bell-glass in the climate of Holland. There, 

 one often sees an hundred, and not unfre- 

 quently several hundreds, in use at once, on 

 the same line of grape espalier. In them, 

 grapes, which will not ripen at all in the 

 open air, mature and attain an excellent 

 flavor. 



The air, it will be seen, circulates freely 

 through these bell-glasses, as the openings 

 at both ends are left open. Insects of all 



Fig. 20. The Dutch Bell-gtast. 



kinds, it is stated, will not remain under 

 these bell-glasses, and the grapes enclosed 

 in them are consequently left entirely un- 

 touched by the numerous flies and wasps, 

 which usually prey upon them when ex- 

 posed. No sooner does a wasp approach 

 the enclosed bunch of grapes, than he 

 takes flight again, probably alarmed at the 



