On watering and shading in dry Seasons. 399 



time to bring its fruit to perfection. The flowers that were 

 set last July twelve months with speciosus are now ripe and 

 about the size of a hen's egg, and have a very rich and 

 agreeable smell, resembling that of a pine apple. 



That beautiful species C. truncatus seems to require less 

 light than the others ; it flowers at any size and at all seasons, 

 without being previously set out of doors. Crassula falcata, 

 with the same treatment, flowers freely with- us about eight 

 inches high. I am, Sir, &c. 



W. J. Shennan. 

 Gunnersbury Park, near Ealing, Middlesex, 

 August 4. 1826. 



Art. XIV. On the Use and Abuse of watering Vegetables in 

 dry Seasons, and on the Advantages of Shade to Ordinary 

 Crops in Times of great Drought. By Mr. George Ful- 

 ton, Gardener to Lord Northwick, at Northwick Park, 

 Gloucestersh ire. 



Sir, 

 As a reader of your very useful Magazine, may I beg to 

 be allowed to offer a few remarks on the watering of vege- 

 tables, as applying more particularly to last year and the 

 present dry season ? Such seasons, I believe, have prevented 

 a number of gardeners from raising any thing near the 

 variety of vegetables usually in demand by the cook of a con- 

 siderable family. The scorching suns of the longest days 

 of the year, want of rain, and almost no dew in the night, 

 are, no doubt, the principal causes of the failures that have 

 generally taken place in the vegetable kingdom : but there 

 are other causes, under particular circumstances, which I think 

 ought to be noticed. One is the carrying to an injudicious 

 extent, the watering of vegetables in very dry weather. 

 How often do we see water thrown upon plants in the open 

 air as it were at random, and frequently the earth washed 

 away from their best roots ? How compressed the earth be- 

 comes after repeated watering is well known, particularly in 

 stiff* or clayey soils. It seems against the economy of nature 

 to water plants at all in a clear atmosphere and dry state of 

 the air. Vegetables, instead of being refreshed, in the night 

 become chilled, and actually scalded as it were in the day. 

 The sickly appearance of plants under such treatment is soon 

 visible, and the decay and death of many is the consequence. 



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