iv 



rHOCEEDlNGS. 



They are trained up every alternate rafter, and there is a Melon- 

 pit the same length as the greenhouse, six feet from it, in 

 which there is about four feet of warm tan for about eitrht 

 months in the year. To Mr. Davidson, gardener to W. 

 Stuart, Esq., F.H.S., for four bunches of Black Hamburgh 

 Grapes, well coloured and swelled — in short, equal to the 

 best of the average samples of Black Hamburgh. The 

 circumstances of their production were thus described by 

 Mr. Davidson : — " These grapes were grown in a house 

 which, owing to the recent alterations and improvements 

 carried out by Mr. Stuart, has been suffered to fall into the 

 last degree of dilapidation ; while the fines have been for 

 more than a year actually done away with. The houses 

 have for many years been forced, and every precaution 

 taken to ensure success in an early crop without any good 

 results ; but since the removal of the flues, the vines have 

 been subject to drip from the glass, a free circulation of air 

 and a low light temperature, varying with the seasons, and, 

 indeed, having been anything but killed with kindness. 

 Notwithstanding, the whole crop has been better than for 

 several years past, and has well ripened off'; the quantity 

 of wood the vines have made, and their general appearance, 

 sufficiently indicate that, with proper care, a crop under 

 the same circumstances may be expected in future 

 years." The heaviest of the bunches exhibited weighed 

 1 lb. 7 ozs. 



Miscellaneous Subjects op Exhibition*. Specimens of 

 the famous Chasselas de Fontainebleau Grapes from Paris, 

 of which it is said that 30,000 lbs. are sent daily to that 

 city. Their condition explained the reason why they are 

 never seen in London ; they do not bear carriage well. Al- 

 though packed in Fontainebleau with much care, they were 

 bruised, broken, and greatly injured. They showed, how- 

 ever, how Grapes alter their appearance according to their 

 treatment ; for no one could have recognised our Royal 

 Muscadine in the little sun-burnt bunches from Paris. A 

 letter which accompanied these specimens stated that, in 

 the old kitchen garden of Versailles, the heavy, damp clay 

 soil produces this Grape of very inferior quality ; whence 

 the writer seemed to infer that the light loam of Thomery 

 was necessary to it. But it was suggested that the soil was 

 immaterial, and that the dryness and warmth of Thomery 

 was the real cause of the excellence of the Grapes. The 

 same letter also contained the following paragraph, which 

 was brought forward to show the bad effects of burying 



