434 Tra?isactions of the Horticultural Society. 



is more difficult than that of the melons of Europe. They are 

 grown in Persia in open fields, on beds richly manured with 

 pigeon's dung, and irrigated by intervening channels supplied 

 artificially. The most successful attempt at imitating this state 

 of things " seems to be, to supply the plants abundantly with 

 water at the roots, but to give them as little as possible over 

 head, to combine copious ventilation and high temperature, 

 by means of frequently renewed linings of hot dung : and to ele- 

 vate each fruit a few inches above the soil, by means of a slate 

 laid upon two bricks placed side by side." 



Of the softs described, a few are of doubtful merit ; and 

 " it has been lately understood from Mr. Willock, that some 

 of the kinds now described are winter melons, which require 

 keeping for some months before they are fit for table ; a cir- 

 cumstance with which we were not made acquainted in suffi- 

 cient time to ascertain which of the varieties now about to be 

 mentioned are of that description." It would not be of much 

 use, therefore, to repeat the names of fruits of which we do 

 not even know the season of their ripening. 



The Horticultural Society and the public are much in- 

 debted to Mr. Willock, the British envoy at the court of 

 Persia, for his unceasing exertion in attempting to transfer 

 several of the rare productions of that country to England. 



68. Report on new or remarkable esculent Vegetables, cultivated in 

 the Garden of the Horticultural Society during the Year termi- 

 nating on the 31st of March, 1826. 



Couve Tronchuda, Portugal or large-ribbed Borecole, Chou 

 vert a larges cotes, Fr., Brdssica costata, var. Dec, introduced 

 by Mr. War re in 1821. — A plant of the cabbage kind, nearly 

 two feet high, with a loose open head, large rugose leaves, 

 and the costae, cotes, or midribs, large, thick, and nearly white, 

 branching into veins of the same colour, chiefly cultivated in 

 the neighbourhood of Braganza. " The ribs of the outer and 

 larger leaves, when divested of the thin green parts and well 

 boiled, make a good dish, somewhat resembling sea-kale. 

 The heart or middle of the plant is, however, the best for 

 use; it is peculiarly delicate, tender, and agreeably flavoured, 

 without any of the coarseness which often belongs to the com- 

 mon cabbage. The plants are too tender to endure the frosts 

 of our climate ; they cannot therefore be cultivated as winter 

 greens. The young seedlings should be preserved under 

 frames during winter, to be planted out at the same time as 

 cauliflowers for an early summer crop, and the succession 



