PROCEEDINGS. xliii 



flower, and along with them came a branch of Jimiperus 

 phoenicea, female, with fruit, and producing also youuf 

 flowers. " The old catkins," Mr. Strangwaj's writes, " are 

 fallen from the male, and will not reappear for some 

 months. The plants stand 100 yards apart, with many trees, 

 cypress and others, between them, yet they fertilize. They 

 are 12 or 14 feet high, about 20 years old, from seed from 

 the south of Naples, where I have seen them growino- on 

 barren calcareous hills and rocks overlooking the rich plain 

 of Taranto. It is certainly a handsome evergreen." Mr. 

 Mills, of Gunnersbury, sent a brace of the Browston 

 Hybrid Cucumber, a variety stated to be quite as early as the 

 Jewess and old Southgate varieties. One was the produce of 

 a cutting struck in September last ; the other of a plant 

 raised from seed sown at the same time. They were stated 

 to have been grown in a pit heated by dung linings. Mr. 

 Mitchell, of Enfield, produced samples of his Royal Albert 

 Ehubarb ; and two sorts of Sea-kale were contributed by 

 Messrs. Vilmorin, of Paris. The French, it was stated, 

 distinguish varieties of this vegetable, and, according to 

 them, the different kinds possess very different properties. 

 Of the two sorts sent, one was the common Violet Sea- 

 kale, the other a pale variety, stated to be ten days earlier 

 than the former and less bitter. Specimens of his material 

 for protecting fruit tree blossoms from early spring frosts 

 were exhibited by Mr. Yexley, of Merton, Surrey ; and 

 Messrs. Dietrichsen and Hannay, of Oxford Street, showed 

 one of their Patent Garden Engines, which pour water 

 against the plant or tree in one continued stream by the 

 upward and downward stroke of the handle. Mr. Mont- 

 gomry, of the Saw Mills, Brentford, exhibited various forms 

 of rafters, sash bars, &c., made well and at a cheap rate by 

 a contrivance for the purpose which he has attached to his 

 saw mill. 



Novelties from the Society's Gardex. Acacia celastri- 

 folia, a pretty species in the way of the myrtle-leaved 

 Acacia ; and a nice plant of ^schynanthus pulcher. 



A collection of Begonias, and other plants of soft-wooded 

 character, which hud been grown under Hartley's patent 

 rolled or rough plate glass, with a view to determine its 

 value for gardening purposes, was brought under the no- 

 tice of the meeting, together with a sample of the glass, by 

 the Vice-Secretary, whose observations on the subject were 

 to the following- effect : — 



