Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 93 



affixed to the rim of the wheel. The irrigation wheel of this 

 construction is used in many of the countries that surround 

 the Mediterranean ; in Egypt it is called namirah ; in Spain, 

 noria. In China the irrigation wiieel is used, and is made 

 entirely of bamboo. This mode of watering gardens by rills 

 requires less labour than the practice of carrying the water in 

 watering-pots. It is suited to the warm and parched climate 

 of Languedoc and Provence, but is not practised in the mid- 

 dle and north of France, where less watering is required. 



" The cardoon (Cynara Cardunculus) is much cultivated 

 in kitchen-gardens at Montpelier, and in Provence ; the 

 blanched footstalks of the leaves being boiled, and used at 

 table. The dried florets of this plant have the property of 

 coagulating milk, and are sold for that purpose at Montpelier. 

 Seeds of annual flowers are collected from the wild plants in 

 the country about Montpelier, and sent to Holland, where 

 they are sold for the use of the flower-garden. Spanish broom 

 (iSpartiumjunceum) is used for making cloth atLodeve, thirty 

 miles north-west of Montpelier. It is sown in January, on 

 dry banks, which have been slightly dug or ploughed. About 

 the fourth year the stalks are long enough to be used for 

 their filaments. The stalks are pulled in August, tied in 

 bunches, which are placed in a ditch covered with straw, and 

 watered during eight or nine days ; the bunches are then 

 beaten on a stone; they are opened out and dried, they are 

 then combed, and the filament is now fit to be spun. Sheep 

 are also fed with the young branches. Between Montpelier 

 and Gauges the small branches of box are used as litter for 

 cattle. 



" In the Cevennes, chestnuts are an article of food, and the 

 inhabitants have a process of kiln-drying them, so that they 

 will keep good for two or three years. The process consists 

 in exposing the chestnuts, on the floor of a kiln, to the smoke 

 of a smothered wood fire. The heat is applied gently, so as 

 to make the internal moisture transpire through the husk of 

 the chestnut. The fire is kept gentle for two or three days, 

 and then is gradually increased during nine or ten days. The 

 chestnuts are then turned with a shovel, and the fire is con- 

 tinued till they are ready. This is known by taking out a few 

 and threshing them ; if they quit their inner skin, they are 

 done. The chestnuts are then put in a bag, and threshed with 

 sticks, to separate the external and internal husk. If the husks 

 are left on, as is practised in the Limousin, the chestnuts be- 

 come black, by imbibing from the husk the empyreumatic oil 

 of the wood smoke, and do not keep so well. 



" Sterculia ^latanifolia (le parasol Chinois, the Tomchu of 



