242 CULTIVATION OF THE FIG-TREE UNDER GLASS. 



loss of water was 1038 grains, whilst in the following month, 

 though the thermometer was then above 62°, the daily evapora- 

 tion was only 872 grains. A similar effect may be observed 

 with regard to the Yew. In July, with a temperature below 62°, 

 the daily loss was 1012 grains; in August, with an average tem- 

 perature above 62°, tlie daily evaporation was only 809 grains. It 

 is evident, therefore, from these experiments, that evaporation 

 is not a mere index of temperature, but that it depends on 

 vitality, influenced by heat, light, and other causes. 



XXI. — On the Cultivation of the Fig-tree U7ider Glass. By 

 Henry Bailey, C.M.H.S., Gardener to G. Harcourt, Esq., 

 F.H.S., Nuneham, Oxford. 



Those persons who have only tasted this fruit when ripened on 

 the open wall in the generally sunless climate of this country, 

 have but little idea of its excellence when perfected under 

 brighter skies and more genial solar influence, or assisted by glass 

 and fire-heat. In addition to the certainty of getting them well 

 ripened under glass, there is the further advantage of securing 

 two crops in the year of rich, jelly-like fruit; while those on the 

 external walls frequently (m dull seasons) do not ripen well, and 

 are mawkish and insipid. Strange as it appears, the fig is less 

 cultivated in England tlian it deserves to be, even in our largest 

 establishments. The writer would invite the attention of gentle- 

 men to the propriety and advantage of devoting a portion of 

 their glass to this fruit, which he assures them will gratefully 

 repay any extra care bestowed upon it ; and having succeeded 

 in its management, he begs with deference to lay before the 

 Society a few hints derived from his own practice and ob- 

 servation. 



Three years ago there existed upon a south wall at this place 

 a large fig-tree, of the brown Ischia kind, over which it was 

 thought desirable to build a house, which should also be used 

 for tlie culture of figs in pots, conjointly with that of the tree 

 upon the back wall : the house placed over it being 48 feet long 

 by 13 feet in width, and the fig-tree at the present time not only 

 covering that space to a height of 13^ feet, but extending across 

 the ends of the house. 



As soon as the house was erected, it became necessary to 

 consider what would be the course of treatment best suited to 

 further the end in view, viz. by artificially lengthening the period 

 of summer to enable it to ripen the figs produced by the second 

 flow of the sap, which figs do not ripen in the open air in this 



