OX THE PREVENTION OF MILDEW IN PARTICULAR CASES. 209 



recommend stocks of this species for Peaches and Nectarines to the 

 attention of nurserymen, as likely to counteract the disposition in 

 some varieties of the peach to become mildewed. It has probably other 

 qualities to recommend it, for it is obviously much more nearly allied to 

 the peach than the plum is, if the peach and nectarine be not, as I 

 suspect them to be, varieties only of the common almond (Amygdalus 

 communis). The almond stocks should be raised and retained in the 

 nursery, in pots, as they do not transplant well. 



XXVIII. ON THE CULTURE OF THE SHALLOT, AND SOME OTHER 

 BULBOUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, December 6th, 1813.] 



THE habits of bulbous-rooted plants of different species, relatively to 

 the depths to which they naturally retire beneath the soil, admit of much 

 variation, some occupying its surface, and others descending considerably 

 beneath it. These circumstances do not appear to have been sufficiently 

 attended to, and injurious consequences have probably been the result, in 

 many cases. 



I have been led to adopt this opinion, and to make the experiments, 

 which are the subject of this communication, by a complaint of my 

 gardener, that the greater part of his crops of shallots had, during several 

 years, generally become mouldy and perished : and I found, on enquiry, 

 that the same thing had very often occurred in other gardens of the 

 vicinity. The bulbs had in all cases been planted, according to the 

 directions of different writers upon horticulture, two or three inches 

 beneath the soil ; and to this cause I attributed their failure. 



A few bulbs of this species, which were divided, as far as practicable, 

 into single buds, were therefore planted upon the surface of the ground, 

 or rather above it, some very rich soil having been placed beneath them, 

 and the mould having been raised on each side to support them, till they 

 should become firmly rooted. This mould was then removed by the hoe 

 and watering-pot, and the bulbs in consequence were placed wholly out 

 of the ground. The growth of these plants now so closely resembled 

 that of the common onion, as not to be readily distinguished from it ; till 

 the irregularity of form, resulting from the numerous germs within 

 each bulb, became conspicuous. The forms of the bulbs, however, 

 remained permanently different from all I had ever previously seen of 



