On two early Varieties of the Potatoe. 245 



ground only a very short time ; and the quality of both 

 is excellent. I cannot, however, recommend either of them 

 for the markets of the metropolis, where large size and yel- 

 lowness, without regard to taste or consistence, constitute 

 excellence, and wholly regulate the price of early Potatoes. 

 The tubers of both varieties are below their ordinary size, 

 on account of the almost incessant rain, and coldness of the 

 weather,. during the period in which they were growing, and 

 the natural dampness of the soil in which they grew. 



With the Potatoes, 1 send a few Spanish Chestnuts, the pro- 

 duce of a young tree that grows here. I have given an opinion 

 in the Horticultural Transactions of 1808,* that this fruit might 

 be cultivated by grafting, and by a proper selection of varieties, 

 with very great advantage in this country; and Sir Joseph 

 Banks has subsequently favoured the Society with obser- 

 vations upon the proper culture of it. f- The situation in which 

 I live is high, and very cold ; and the Chestnut Trees are 

 in consequence almost wholly barren, exclusive of a single 

 tree, which in every moderately favourable season affords 

 very fine fruit, little inferior in size to those imported from 

 the Continent. Those you receive for the inspection of the 

 Members of the Horticultural Society were not selected as the 

 largest ; for you will see by their forms, that three generally 

 occupied a single capsule: nor are they in a greater state of 

 perfection than usual, for the spring and early part of the 

 summer, in this part of England, were exceedingly cold and 

 wet ; and the annual branches of the Chestnut Trees were 

 much injured by the severity of the frost in April. 



The produce of this tree, which I can scarcely suppose the 



* See page 62. f See page 140. 



