46 Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 



than is generally imagined; the wood which has to bring the 

 future crop will be all made during this period. In a good heat 

 it will be found to grow more compact, and to receive a form 

 better calculated to produce and ripen fruit under the cold 

 atmosphere to which it is afterwards exposed. If the house be 

 kept too cool at the beginning, the wood will be soft and long- 

 jointed, and therefore subsequently barren. Those who at- 

 tempt to grow late grapes must pay serious attention to this 

 circumstance, the failures of many may be attributed to the 

 neglect of it." 



The fruit should be perfectly coloured at the approach of 

 the dark season, after which, a more passive vegetation is 

 maintained, during which the bunches will remain for months 

 without any apparent alteration. The Muscat of Alexandria, 

 St. Peter's, and Black Damascus are the sorts best adapted 

 for late crops ; " all the other kinds wither prematurely." 

 The o-athering of this crop generally commences in the middle 

 of January, and continues till the early house comes into bear- 

 ing in March. 



In pruning here, as in the early house, no wood is suffered 

 to remain without fruit. If the plants bleed at the spring- 

 dressing, keeping the house warmer, for a week, will compress 

 the wood as effectually as a long winter. When the fruit is 

 fathered, the house is unroofed, to restore the elastic power 

 of the wood, which never fails to be lost where vines have 

 been exposed for a considerable time to a dry atmosphere. In 

 o-eneral, exposure of vines for a few weeks to frost promotes 

 their breaking vigorously and uniformly ; when the frost has 

 been so severe as to condense the sap, and compress the wood 

 to a great degree, its elasticity may be restored by washing the 

 branches frequently in cold water in a low temperature. Mr. 

 Aeon thanks Mr. Sabine for the encomiums passed on the 

 warden under his care, when visited by Mr. Sabine in October, 

 1826 ; we visited the same garden about the same time, and 

 bear testimony to the order in which it was kept, and the excel- 

 lent state of the crops. A pressure of other matter has hitherto 

 prevented us from printing the notes which we made on that 

 journey, already alluded to. (Gard. Mag. vol. ii. p. 6.) 



2 On the Varieties of Cardoon, and the Methods of cultivating them. 

 By Mr. Andrew Mathews, A.L.S. 



The cardoon is not very generally cultivated in English 

 gardens, probably, as Mr. Mathews conjectures, because " it 

 requires more skill in the cooking than is commonly applied 

 to it." It is a good deal in use in the South of France, as 



