General Jfotices. 387 



attention, and, when the season again comes round, double his 

 stock. We are certain that if this precaution was taken, we 

 should hear less complaints of the beauly of hyacinths, and of 

 the scanty display they make for the trouble taken in their cul- 

 tivation. 



Art. 6, " on the mode of producing two crops of grapes from 

 the same vines in one year." In this article the writer states 

 that when he took charge of the vines, in April, 1833, he found 

 that his predecessor had forced them since November, 1832 : the 

 whole crop in two pits did not exceed five pounds; his method 

 is detailed as follows: — 



" In November, 1833, 1 began to force the west pit ; and, by the end of 

 March, 1834, I had a pretty good crop of grapes, according to the 

 strength of the vines, fit to cut; and, by the end of April, all the grapes 

 were gathered. The other pit succeeded. I immediately thre\v open 

 the west pit, after pruning the vines, and filled the border with night soil. 

 About June, the buds began to push, and they opened strong. I then 

 shut up the pit, and gave very little air, and plenty of water, but no fire; 

 and on December 1834, I had a fine crop of grapes fit to cut, and well 

 colored; besides my vines having made good wood, and the other pit 

 coming in, as before, in succession. In the autumn of 1835, I had an- 

 other still larger crop of finer fruit; and, if my employer had not been 

 so very much alarmed at the expense of about £12 [upwards of fifty 

 dollars] for coals, I should have had another crop fit to cut this last Feb- 

 ruary, which would have been four crops in one year and eleven 

 months; and the vines as strong again as they were when I first had the 

 care of them, and producing double the quantity of fruit." 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Chinese Method of Dwarfing Trees. — The Chinese are remarkable 

 for their taste in wishing to have even the most stupendous objects in 

 nature in miniature: mountains, rocks, lakes, rivers, aged trees, must all 

 be represented and modelled upon a scale of a few inches. The former 

 are formed of natural fragments, curiously and fantastically cemented 

 together, leaving water-tight hollows and little channels, to represent 

 lakes and rivers. The dwarfed trees are, however, very curiously train- 

 ed, requiring considerable skill, and a considerable period of time, to get 

 the trees into the desired form. 



The trees which they commonly choose to train as dwarfs are, their 

 native juniper (J. chinensis), the dwarf elm (fJlmus ptimila), and the 

 Indian fig (F. indica). The means employed in dwarfing these plants 

 are, — keeping them always in the same pot — allowing but little earth for 

 them to grow in, the pot being half filled with rugged stones, which jut 

 out of the surface; among these some of the roots are brought out, 



