Short Communications. 587 



but little similar to that sent. I had purposed cultivating 

 other kinds of the genus Nicot?aw«, and went so far as to 

 send for seeds; but I failed at that time in procuring them, 

 and have since been othervi^ise too clpsely occupied to enter 

 on further trials. 



The seeds were sown in pots in a hot-bed, on the 20th of 

 March ; transplanted on the 30th April ; due attention paid 

 to " topping" (nipping off the tops as soon as the flowers show), 

 *^suckering" (picking out the incipient shoots of the axils of 

 the leaves), " worming" (destroying, by the hand, a kind of 

 grub that infests the plants, but of which I do not know the 

 name), and protecting from slugs which devour it greedily, 

 and make sad havoc with the leaves, if not carefully defended 

 from their attacks. I gathered the N. Tahdcum from the 24th 

 of July to the 7th of August ; the N. rugosa from the 7th 

 to the 29th of the latter month. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — 

 J, C. K. Levant Lodge, Feb. 1833. 



The sample of snuff sent by J. C. K. we committed to the 

 cognizance of a most experienced snuff-taker, who reports on 

 it as far too defective in pungency to afford him pleasure or 

 satisfaction in the taking of it. — J. D. 



The Fruit of Strawberries jpreserved free from Grit, and the 

 Attacks of Slugs, by covering the Soil under the Fruit "mth a 

 Layer of the short Grass mown off Lawns. — As the fruit of 

 the strawberry is, with many, a thing of consequence, the pre- 

 servation of it from the several casualties to which, on its 

 attaining maturity, it is liable, is, or ought to be, an object of 

 as much solicitude : to point out a preservative from one or 

 more of the evils which endanger it, will be my endeavour in 

 the present communication. I generally grow the large sorts 

 in rows from 20 in. to 2 ft. apart, and a considerable quantity 

 in a single row between the box edging and the gooseberry 

 bushes, which form the narrowborder of the quarters. These 

 distances I consider the best for Keen's seedling, Wilmot's 

 superb, &c., the crop of which is as good in the fifth year as 

 in the third, and better than that in the second. The small 

 sorts, as the early scarlet, Duke of Kent's scarlet, the Rose- 

 berry, &c., may be grown with as much advantage on narrow 

 beds, 3 ft. or 4 ft. wide, and if renewed every three or four 

 years. In the case of the smaller sorts, they being so close 

 together, the following method might be dispensed with, or, 

 at least, it is not necessary ; but in the large kinds above 

 named, owing to the isolatedness of the rows, and the heavi- 

 ness of the bunches of fruit, these latter lie on the soil, and, 

 when rain falls, are covered with grit, and they likewise lie so 

 convenient for slugs, that many are destroyed by them. To 



