368 Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 



— Cornichon [a little horn]. Curiously shaped berry, but 

 inferior in quality, though it keeps well. 



8. An Account of the Species of Calochortus, a Genus of American 

 Playits. By Mr. David Douglas, A.L.S. Read February 19. 

 1828. 



Pursh first noticed this genus; and it was afterwards found 

 by Mr. Douglas, near the river Colombia. It is nearly re- 

 lated to Fritillaria, and is intermediate between that and La- 

 lium. The bulb is solid, the leaves linear, convolute, and 

 strongly nerved ; flowers large, showy, of a rich purple, with 

 a transverse brown streak. The species described are C. ma- 

 crocarpus, nitidus, and elegans. A fourth species is said to 

 grow near the confluence of Oakenagen River; the root is 

 used by the Indians as food, and the plant is magnificent. 



9. An Account of some Improvements in the Construction of Hot- 



beds. By T. A. Knight, Esq. President. 



In this paper it is stated, that hot-beds can hardly be kept 

 warm enough in winter, without danger of burning the earth 

 under the roots of the plants ; and that though there is abun- 

 dant heat in the body of the fermenting substances of which 

 the bed is composed, yet this cannot be admitted to repel frost 

 in the common way of making the bed. To get full command 

 of this interior heat, the President recommends placing a thin 

 iron or wooden tube from front to back of the leaves or dung 

 composing the bed, and at about one third of its height from 

 the top. This tube is 1^ in. in diameter, open at both ends, but 

 intended to be opened or closed by plugs at pleasure. Three 

 smaller tubes, of three quarters of an inch in diameter, are in- 

 serted at equal distances into the large one, which rise through 

 the dung and mould of the bed, and discharge, by lateral holes 

 near their tops, the heated air which rises from the large tube, 

 the latter having its lower end open, and its upper end closed. 

 This simple apparatus, Mr. Knight asserts, will be sufficient 

 to keep the air within a frame 6 ft. long at a proper tempera- 

 ture ; and equal to resist any degree of cold, without mat-co- 

 verings, provided the glass is laid in lead, or has the lappings 

 puttied up. The President has not had full experience of 

 this scheme, but expects the best results from it; and cer- 

 tainly, if so small a tube could collect, and by its branches 

 transmit, a sufficiency of heated air into the frame, the plants 

 might receive a larger share of light, which the ordinary way 

 of covering deprives them of, and which in the winter would 

 be of material advantage. 



