398 Trafisactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



4. On the Cultivation of ChUdanthus frdgrans, a hardy bulbous Plant, By 



R. W. Byres, Esq. Read July 16. 1833. 



This elegant and fragrant flower, Mr. Byres finds to be of as easy culture 

 as the narcissus. He first tried it in the stove, and afterwards the frame, but 

 found that high temperature had the effect of fretting the bulb into offsets, 

 and not of enlarging it. Afterwards he planted it under a south wall, in a bed 

 18 in. deep, in the soil in which he grows his collection of amaryllis (turfy 

 loam, sand, and decayed vegetable matter), planting the bulbs 6 in. deep, and 

 protecting them during winter by mulching. In the April of the next year, Mr. 

 Byres observes, " They began to show themselves ; I was satisfied they were 

 getting stronger, as very few offsets appeared and the leaves were more sturdy ; 

 hoping for a flower in 1832, [ again lifted them undisturbed, but not a bulb 

 threw up a scape, and after they had made most vigorous foliage, and gra- 

 dually died off, I took up the plants in November, when some very fine bulbs 

 were obtained, nearly as large as Sprekelia formosissima, or four times larger 

 than the original bulb obtained from the nursery. 



" I potted seven bulbs, four of which flowered in the green-house in April. 

 The remainder of the bulbs I planted out as before, and one of them in the 

 end of May threw up its scape, and flowered." 



5. U'pon the Causes of the premature Death of Part of the Branches of the 

 Moorpark Apricot, and some other Wall Fruit Trees. By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq., Pres., F.R.S. Read June 2. 1835. 



The following very excellent paper deserves the attentive perusal of the 

 young gardener : — 



" The branches of all trees, during much the larger portion of the periods 

 in which they continue to live, are in their natural situations kept in continual 

 motion, by the action of wind upon them ; and of this motion their stems 

 and superficial roots partake, whenever the gales of wind are even moderately 

 strong : and I have shown, in the Philosophical Transactions, that the forms 

 of all large and old trees must have been much modified by this agent. The 

 motions of the circulating fluids, and sap of the tree, are also greatly in- 

 fluenced and governed by it ; and whenever any part of the root, the stem, 

 or the branches, of a tree are bent by winds or other agents, an additional 

 quantity of alburnum is there deposited ; and the form of the tree becomes 

 necessarily well adapted to its situation, whether that be exposed or shel- 

 tered. If exposed to frequent and strong agitation, its stem and branches 

 will be short and rigid, and its superficial roots will be large and strong ; and, 

 if sheltered, its growth will be in every part more feeble and slender. I have 

 much reason to believe, upon the evidence of subsequent experiments, that 

 the widely extended branches of large timber trees would be wholly incapable 

 of supporting their foliage when wetted with rain, if the proportions of their 

 parts were not to be extensively changed and their strength greatly augmented, 

 by the operation of winds upon them during their previous growth. Exercise, 

 therefore, appears to be productive of somewhat analogous effects upon ve- 

 getable and upon animal life ; and to be nearly as essential to the growth of 

 large trees, as to that of animals. 



*' Whenever the branches of a tree are bound to a wall, they wholly lose 

 the kind of exercise above described, which nature obviously intended them 

 to receive ; and many ill consequences generally follow ; not however to the 

 same extent, nor precisely of the same kind, to trees of different species and 

 habits. When a standard plum or peach tree is permitted to take its natural 

 form of growth, its sap flows freely, and most abundantlj', to the extremities 

 of its branches, and it continues to flow freely through the same branches 

 during the whole life of the tree : but when the branches are bound to a wall, 

 and are no longer agitated by winds, each branch becomes in a few years what 

 Duhamel calls ' usee,' that is, debilitated and sapless, owing apparently to 

 its being no longer properly pervious to the ascending sap. The obstruction 



