Tt'ansactio7is of the Horticultural Society. 47 



Too much cannot be said in commendation of this variety : during the 

 whole of the first part of April it renders the garden gay with its riclily 

 coloured and numerous blossoms." 



*93. C. vernus tardiflorus. " The last to appear; coming out in April, 

 and is in perfection in the middle of the month." 



We have numbered these sorts in series, which, it appears, 

 amount to 93. We believe all these sorts may be obtained 

 from the Epsom nursery ; and they may be ordered from that 

 nursery, or from any other, by giving the above numbers, 

 v/ithout the trouble of writing the names. It is clear from 

 the above list, that no garden whatever, whether in town or 

 country, need be without abundance of crocuses in flower 

 from the first week in February till the last week in April. 

 As no bulb is cheaper to purchase, more easy of culture, or 

 increases faster in any soil or situation, it will be the fault of 

 the possessors of gardens if they have not abundance of them 

 in their borders. Whoever cannot afford to purchase all the 

 above varieties may purchase their types, which we have 

 marked with a star (*), and which amount to 24 sorts, save 

 the seed, and raise varieties for themselves. Nothing, as 

 Mr. Sabine has shown (p. 43.), can be easier; and, for a 

 lady, few garden employments could be more agreeable. 

 Mr. Sabine deserves the warmest thanks of all lovers of 

 flowers, for the service which he has rendered to floriculture, 

 by his attention to this very interesting family. This service, 

 and those which he has rendered in introducing and describ- 

 ing chrysanthemums, paeonies, and roses, will remain and be 

 remembered when his errors of management of the Horti- 

 cultural Society have been corrected and forgotten. 



51. On tJie Cultivation of Air Plants in Stoves. By Mr. Thomas 

 Fairbairn, F.H.S. Read Sept. 2. 1828. 



Mr. Fairbairn, when gardener to Sir Joseph Banks, at 

 Spring Grove, in 1813, flowered the Aerides odoratum very 

 finely by the following treatment : — "I put the plant, when 

 first received, into a basket with old tan and moss, and hung 

 it up in the pine-house, where it was exposed to the summer 

 sun, and to the fire-heat in winter ; a tub of water was placed 

 near it, so that I could take down and plunge the basket six 

 or seven times a day, or as often as I passed it." Twelve years 

 afterwards, when gardener to the Prince Leopold at Clare- 

 mont, Mr. Fairbairn flowered Renanthera coccinea, " with 

 some variation, however, which cultivators may find an im- 

 provement : — First, some old rotten roots of fern and moss 

 were collected, and put into the bottom of a china jar, in 

 which the plant was placed ; it was then covered nearly over 



