[97] 



XXIII. On the Culture of the Shallot, and some other bulbous- 

 rooted Plants. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 

 F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read December 6, 1813. 



The habits of bulbous-rooted plants of different species, 

 relatively to the depths to which they naturally retire beneath 

 the soil, admit of much variation, some occupying its surface, 

 and others descending considerably beneath it. These cir- 

 cumstances do not appear to have been sufficiently attended 

 to, and injurious consequences have probably been the result, 

 in many cases. 



I have been led to adopt this opinion, and to make the 

 experiments, which are the subject of this communication, 

 by a complaint of my gardener, that the greater part of 

 his crops of Shallots had, during several years, generally 

 become mouldy and perished : and I found, on enquiry, that 

 the same thing had very often occurred in other gardens of 

 the vicinity. The bulbs had in all cases been planted, accord- 

 ing to the directions of different writers upon Horticulture, 

 two or three inches beneath the soil ; and to this cause I 

 attributed their failure. 



A few bulbs of this species, which were divided, as far as 

 practicable, into single buds, were therefore planted upon 

 the surface of the ground, or rather above it, some very rich 

 soil having been placed beneath them, and the mould having 

 been raised on each side to support them, till they should 



