212 Horticultural Society. 



some gardeners present called the Black Jamaica, had an excellent flavour 

 The best apple tasted was the golden pippin, and the best pear the colmar. 

 A paper was read on the cultivation of the Guernsey lily, by Mr. Knight, the 

 president. 



January 3d. Several varieties of winter radishes and some flowers of 

 Astrapaea Wallichii, Tussilago fragrans, and a plant of Orchis longibracteata, 

 were exhibited from the. garden of the society. An envile and ripley 

 queen pine-apple, and some apples and pears,- were tasted ; and a paper read 

 on the rare plants which had flowered in the garden from March 1824, to 

 March 1825, by Mr. John Lindley. 



January nth. The chief articles produced at this day's meeting were 

 some chiccory and rhubarb stalks forced in what the society call their 

 Russian-house, viz. a back shed or opaque case, heated by a flue, and which 

 will also grow mushrooms if required. Ripened fruits of cactus speciosus, 

 and speciosissima were exhibited from Comte de Vandes's garden, Bayswater. 

 They were about the size and shape of small gooseberries ; those of specio- 

 sissima, rather the largest, and of a brownish green colour; those of the other 

 somewhat flattened, and of a shining purple. Those of cactus speciosahad 

 remained upon the plant for nearly two years, the latter for nine months. 

 Two pine apples were tasted, and some good colmar pears, and golden 

 pippin apples ; some packets of seeds were distributed, including the sickle 

 pea, tetragonia expansa, double poppy and wall-flower. Among the 

 books presented were the Memoires de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de 

 St. Petersburg, the gift of the late emperor. The papers read, were 

 remarks on temperature as applied to vegetation, by Mr. Arch. Gorrie ; a 

 description of some new chrysanthemums, by the secretary; and of a sym- 

 pathetic movement for opening ventilators of hot-houses, by Mr. Young of 

 Pitfour, Perthshire. 



February 7th. The secretary, after enumerating the subjects of the 

 former meeting, and the various articles sent to the society, proceeded to 

 read several communications ; one of which was from Mr. Stewart Murray, 

 curator of the botanic garden at Glasgow, on the cultivation of hardy 

 American orchideous plants ; one by Joseph Sabine, Esq. on forcing of figs 

 in the gardens of Harewood House ; and another on transplanting of the 

 carrot and similar roots, by the president, accompanied with a plan, was a 

 38 communication on the construction of an Aquarium, suited to 

 Chinese and other tender water plants, by Joseph Clare, Esq. There 

 was read a meteorological report from observations made at the 

 society's garden, by Mr. Lindley, together with some useful inform- 

 ation on the comparative properties of straight and curvilinear 

 roofs to hot-houses, and on the difference of heat yielded by flues 

 covered with slate, and of those covered with common tile. The 

 things exhibited, were a variety of apples and pears, a distorted branch 

 of an apple tree, full of woody excrescences, produced by the 

 American blight, and some fine stalks of forced Siberian rhubarb; 

 j| cuttings of the yellow berried mountain-ash ; seeds of the Guernsey 

 parsnip, red horse carrot, white turnip radish, onion, and cabbage 

 lettuce were distributed. 



February 21st. The communications read at this day's meeting, 

 were the following ; on protecting the blossom of wall-trees from 

 frost in spring, and their fruit from wasps in autumn, by Mr. John, 

 Gardener, of Ballindean; description of a stove for forcing of melons 

 and cucumbers, accompanied with an explanatory plan by Mr. John 

 Haythorn; physiological experiments on vines, by Mr. Thompson, 

 Gardener at Welbeck ; and one from Mr. Smith, Gardener at Hop- 

 ton-house, describing the rapid growth of three cedars of Lebanon 

 at that place. The things exhibited were, a thermometer for ascer- 

 ^ taining the heat of bark-beds in stoves, (Jig. 38.) It consisted of a tube 

 and scale inclosed in a hollow cylinder perforated to admit the heat, with a 



