18 MASSACHUSETTS IIOUTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



seedlings. As soon as tliey are large enough to handle, they are 

 pricked out in boxes a foot square, about fifty in a box. The first 

 of June they are potted and put under a whitewashed frame, where 

 they remain, if to be kept in pots, or until the weather is fine for 

 planting out in the ground. 



Mr. Wilder said that his method was to sow the seed in broad 

 pans in January or February, and pot when the plants are two 

 inches high, in pots one-third full of drainage. He had petted his 

 plants, which would perhaps account for the size of those exhib- 

 ited. 



John B. Moore enquired whether their large size might not be 

 owing to the habit of the parents. One of the parents, the 

 Souvenir de Prince Albert, is a strong grower, while Mr. Hovey 

 may have used seed of weaker growing kinds. 



Mr. Hovey called attention to the fruit of Cliamoerops Fortunei 

 exhibited b}' him, the spike resembling a very open bunch of very 

 small, round, blue grapes in appearance. This is a Chinese species, 

 remarkable as the hardiest known palm, and Mr. Hovey believed 

 it was destined to be cultivated throughout the United States. 

 The plant was not taken into the house until about six weeks ago, 

 when the thermometer indicated only 12° to 15°, and was then 

 placed in a house when the temperature fell as low as 15°. The 

 plant is dioecious, and Mr. Hovey was fortunate enough to possess 

 both sexes. The flowers are very beautiful, the pistillate flowers 

 of a light yellow color and the staminate ones larger and more 

 showy, of a deep golden 3'ellow. The plant produced three clus- 

 ters, that shown being the ripest. It was imported fifteen or six- 

 teen years ago, and is now eight feet high. It can be allowed to 

 stand out doors until November, and can be grown by everybody, 

 and is ornamental not only for the fruit, but for its flowers and the 

 fibres around the stem, which present the appearance of being 

 artificial. These are used by the Chinese for making cordage. 

 The tree can be placed on the lawn from the first of April to the 

 first of December, and Mr. Hovey intends, as soon as he has a 

 sufficient number, to try it out doors through the winter with a 

 slight protection of straw. 



J. H. Woodford asked whether the hardiness of the species 

 would be increased by sowing these seeds in the open ground and 

 allowing them to remain there throuirh the winter. 



