. Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 1 69 



in smaller houses, or frames where the fruit can be more 

 affected by the sun's rays. To remedy this defect in a wide 

 house, he has for some years past put boards under the trellis 

 in the vineries, placing them at such a distance from the vines 

 as that the grapes can hang free. The result is, grapes of almost 

 as fine a colour as those in the smaller houses, and tne boards 

 assist in ripening the wood. 



73. On Fig-trees, and an Account of their Cultivation in a Fig- 

 house in the Garden of the late Earl of Bridgewater at Ashridge 

 in Hertfordshire. By Joseph Sabine, Esq. F.R.S., &c. Secre- 

 tary. Read March 16, 1824. 



Three plants of the brown ischia are trained against aback wall 

 of a narrow-house, upwards of sixty feet long. Fire is usually 

 applied about the end of January, and a similar climate to that 

 of forcing cherries attempted. The first crop of fruit begins 

 to ripen early in June, and lasts till the middle of August. The 

 second crop extends from the middle, or some period between 

 that and the end of September, till Christmas. Thus a supply 

 of figs during upwards of six months is obtained. 



In October 1825, the conductor saw this fig-house, in 

 which was the remainder of a good crop. Young wood was 

 pretty equally distributed over the whole of the back wall. 



74. Notices of Communications to the Horticultural Society between 

 May 1, 1821, and January 1, 1822, of which separate Accounts 

 have not been published in the Transactions. Extracted from the 

 Minute Books and Papers of the Society. 



Mr. Thomas Fleetwood, of Dunnington near Alcester, 

 hastens the maturity of grapes on open walls by the following 

 method. Before the vines are out of flower, he brijngs each 

 bunch into a perpendicular position by a thread attached to its 

 extremity and fastened to a nail in the wall, carefully confining 

 the young branch with the bunch thereon, as close to the wall 

 as possible. Fixed in this way, they ripen a month earlier than 

 when left to hang in the usual way. 



T. Patherus, Esq. destroys insects on apple and cherry trees, 

 by rubbing with fresh green leaves of foxglove (digitalis pur- 

 purea). 



C. S. Dickens, Esq. has constructed a hot-bed for forcing 

 cucumbers, as follows. " Instead of forming a solid bed of 

 dung, as is usually done, he constructs four brick piers, one 

 foot and a half high, and nine inches square, to support a two- 

 light frame. Two pieces of timber, four inches square, are 

 laid from pier to pier at back and front; on these is laid a 



N 3 



