PROCEEDINGS. ix 



" I have grown the other kinds of Japan Lilies in the 

 open air with much success for some years, and have now 

 many thousand flowers just bursting into beauty. 



" I cannot lielp calling attention to this plant for orna- 

 menting gardens and pleasure grounds, flowering as it does 

 without any trouble, in the open borders at this period of 

 the year, when good flowers are so much needed. It is also 

 a most desirable plant in pots for decorating the conser- 

 vatory, being very fragrant as well as beautiful." 



Mr. Josling, of St. Alban's, sent a dish of his St. Alban's 

 Grape, some account of which will be found at p. 296, 

 Vol. i. The bunches exhibited were green and unripe ; 

 when ripe the berries have a yellow tinge, and are fleshy, 

 with a fine Frontignan flavour. Pretty good bunches of 

 Cannon Hall Muscat, Black Hamburgh, and White Nice 

 Grapes, were contributed by Mr. Ayres, gardener to J. 

 Cook, Esq., F.H.S., Brooklands, Blackheath, with the fol- 

 lowing memorandum concerning their cultivation : — 



" The Grapes exhibited are not sent as being anything 

 remarkable, but merely as samples of the second crop from 

 vines which have only been planted two years and six 

 weeks, and have therefore not been grown so long as the 

 vines in the glass-covered and hot-water heated border, 

 from which Grapes were exhibited at the last meeting of 

 the Society. My border is made wholly above the surface 

 of the surrounding soil, and is formed in the following 

 manner : — A layer of concrete 3 inches thick was placed 

 on a previously prepared sloping border, and rammed quite 

 firm, introducing a line of 2-inch drain pipes opposite the 

 end of each rafter; over this was then laid from 1 foot to 

 18 inches of brick rubbish, intermixed with oyster-shells 

 and rough bone-dust, and the same materials were liberally 

 thrown in ^^ith the soil, a good top-spit turfy loam, to which 

 a little half- decomposed leaf mould was added. The border 

 at the present time is little more than 6 feet wide and 

 about ] 8 inches deep ; but this autumn I intend to add 

 4 feet more to it, and when finished, which will not be for 

 several years to come, it will be about 20 feet wide. In 

 making the border, my object was more to ensure its being 

 thoroughly porous than to make it rich, as I consider it 

 much wiser to trust to top-dressing and liquid manure for 

 stimulants than to make a rich border, which after a few 

 years becomes sour and unhealthy. Mj^ borders are so 

 thoroughly porous, tliat ten gallons of water poured on will 

 run through and out at the drains. The vines were planted 

 on the 26th of July, 1845, and after tliat time ran to the 



