418 Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 



12. Description of the different Varieties of Endives cultivated in 

 the Garden of the Horticultural Society of London, in the Year 

 1824. By Mr. Andrew Mathews. Read December 21. 



1824. 



Mr. Mathews is one of the Society's garden clerks, and it 

 is gratifying to see young men so circumstanced stimulated 

 and encouiaged to produce papers of this kind. They are 

 precisely the sort of papers that young men are best calculated 

 for, and which, when well done, will do them the most good, 

 by whetting the faculty of attention, and quickening the powers 

 of comparison and discrimination. Mr. M., since he finished 

 his paper, no doubt sees many things in endives which he did 

 not see before he began to study them, and which those who 

 have not attended to endives, as he has done, cannot see. Let 

 him and others reflect from this, how much our knowledge of 

 any object or subject depends on our close and continued 

 attention to it, and how very imperfect must be our judgment 

 on a great number of subjects, to which, from various causes, 

 we have not paid more than ordinary attention. 



The Cichorium endivia, a native of the northern provinces 

 of China, is the parent of all the European endives. They 

 have been cultivated in Europe from time immemorial as salad 

 plants : and the different varieties may be classed as Batavian 

 Endives (Scaroles, Fr.), which include all the broad-leaved 

 kinds; and Curled Endives (Chicories, Fr.), which include all 

 those with narrow leaves more or less divided, and much 

 curled. Mr. M. describes five sorts of the first, and seven 

 sorts of the second variety. The twelve varieties described, 

 seem all pretty nearly of equal merit, unless we except the 

 " Small Batavian Endive" (Scarole petite, courte, or ro?ide, Fr.), 

 of which Mr. M. says, " This is certainly the best of the 

 endives, and a valuable addition to our winter salads ; it 

 blanches with little trouble, and is mild and sweet, without 

 being bitter." 



13. Description of a newly invented Instrument for effectually ap- 

 plying Tobacco Fumigation to Plants. By Mr. John Read, of 

 Newington Causeway, South wark. Read July 6. 1824. 



This addition to Mr. Read's syringe is already figured and 

 described in our Encyclopaedias. Fumigation is the only one 

 of the numerous uses to which this most valuable instrument 

 can be applied, which does not succeed so perfectly as could 

 be wished, a glutinous liquid being formed during the oper- 

 ation, which prevents the free action of the valves. Notwith- 

 standing this, however, the instrument may be successfully 

 used for so many purposes, that it ought not only to be in 



