618 View of the Progress of Gardenings 



refer to the plan for throwing tropical plants into flower, detailed 

 in p. 19. 



The various new plants that have flowered, and been figured, 

 for the first time in England, during the past year (among which 

 are several beautiful hardy annuals, perennials, bulbs, and 

 shrubs), will be found indicated by a star in the Index to the 

 List of Plants, which forms part of the Contents to our present 

 volume. 



Horticulture. — The subject which has attracted most atten- 

 tion during the past year in this department is, the coiling system 

 of vine culture, introduced by Mr. Mearns, the merits of which, 

 however, do not appear to be yet determined on by practical 

 men. The subject of managing vines in the open air has been 

 treated on in a masterly manner by Mr. Hoare, whose book is 

 the most valuable addition to pomological literature that has 

 been made for several years. We are not aware of any remark- 

 able acquisitions that have been made to our culinary vegetables. 

 A silver-skinned underground onion has latelv been cultivated 

 in the experimental garden at Inverleith ; and the quinoa 

 (Chenopodium Qiiinba), introduced some years ago, but only 

 recently brought into general notice by Mr. Lambert, who has 

 been most successful in its culture, may be mentioned as a spi- 

 nach plant, and one at the same time valuable for its seeds, 

 which are used as a substitute for millet or rice. It will pro- 

 bably be found useful to the settlers in new countries, as the 

 seeds are ripened within three or four months after the plant is 

 sown, and as they require no husking, or other preparation, pre- 

 viously to their being cooked as food. As far as horticultural 

 productions are concerned, it is to be regretted that the pecu- 

 niary circumstances of the London Horticultural Society have 

 obliged them, in a great measure, to give up the culinary vege- 

 table department of their garden. It is not that vegetables could 

 be grown there better, or even as well, as in many market-gar- 

 dens ; for in no one garden can every description of vegetables 

 be grown to the highest degree of perfection; but, the culture 

 and proving of culinary vegetables having been known by hor- 

 ticulturists every where, both at home and abroad, to be carried 

 on in that garden, as well as the culture and proving of fruits, it 

 became a focus to which new productions were sent from every 

 quarter. These new productions being seen by visitors to the 

 garden, and being reported on, from time to time, in the Society's 

 Transactions^ soon became generally known, and, in conse- 

 quence, were introduced to the seed shops, and from them into 

 commercial and private gardens. Two modes of growing mush- 

 rooms, which will appear in the Number for January, 1836, 

 may be worth noticing here. If the mushroom stone (which 

 appears to be a kind of spawn brick, but of a more earthy and 



