PKOCEEDINGS. 



kidney Potatoes, sprung and ready fur planting;, from Mr. 

 Cuthill, of Camberwell. Tiiese latter were sent to prove 

 by the strength of their shoots the fallacy of the opinion 

 entertained by some, that small potatoes will not produce 

 so good a crop as large tubers. Mr. Cuthill is of opinion 

 that they will, and in this, it was mentioned, he is borne 

 out by a series of experiments which had been tried in tlie 

 Society's Garden some sixteen years ago, the result of which 

 was that the small sets yielded as good a crop as large 

 ones. Mr. Wilmot, F.H.S., Isleworth, sent an impression 

 of a Vine-leaf measuring 21 inches the one way and 18 

 inches the other. The history of the vines whicli produced 

 the leaves, of which this impression was an example, is as 

 follows. From time to time Mr. Wilmot had collected a 

 great number of what were given out as varieties of Black 

 Hamburgh, and, in order to prove them without loss of time, 

 he planted them, two years ago last June, at the back of two 

 of his low pine-houses, extracting a brick out of the wall for 

 each vine, and introducing their points into the houses. Two 

 house? 90 feet long were so planted on the same day, and 

 under precisely the same circumstances ; in fact both houses 

 were planted in less than two hours. The object Mr. 

 "Wilmot had in view being merely to get a bunch or two off 

 each vine, in order to ascertain their relative merits, 

 instead of an expensive border being prepared, a hole was 

 dug with a mattock and spade barely sufficient to receive 

 the ball when turned out of the pot. This hole was made 

 in the hard beaten patli, which is composed principally of 

 clinkers, cinders, and gravel. The vines grew away im- 

 mediately, and fruited well the following year in the tem- 

 perature of the pine-stove, all proving, as was expected, to 

 be one and the same kind of Hamburgh. Last October one 

 of the pits began to break. The other (January 9) is now 

 in about the same stage of forwardness as the other was in 

 October. The foliage is generally of the size mentioned, and 

 the vines are altogether very vigorous, bearing a capital crop, 

 half swelled, and which will ripen by the end of February. 

 When the manner of planting the vines, the quality of the 

 border, and the season at whicli such foliage has been 

 developed, are taken into account, the whole matter proved 

 inexplicable to Mr. Wilmot, who, witli all his experience, 

 was unable to account for it. From Mr. Roberts, of p]ast- 

 cheap, came some wire guards, or flower supporters, and 

 specimens of earthenware pipes split in two, which fitted 

 into sockets also split, for putting round plants, more 

 especially strawberries, with a view to keeping their fruit 

 clean. 



