By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq, 327 



generate, in one part of their lives, the sap which they expend in 

 another. I, every season, plant in the beginning of June, and a 

 little earlier, a large quantity of the very late variety of pea, which 

 bears my name ; and by supplying the plants abundantly with water 

 I prevent (as I have stated in a communication to the Society many 

 years ago) to a very great extent the injurious effects of mildew : 

 and by these means I regularly obtain a most abundant supply of 

 pease in September and October, and of better quality than I can 

 obtain in the month of June. In this case the sap which is pre- 

 pared in the summer is obviously expended in the autumn. 



The good effects, which I have proved to arise from planting 

 large tubers of the potatoe plant, obviously spring from the large 

 accumulation of sap in them. Fed by means of this, not only a large 

 breadth of foliage is produced and exposed to sight more early in 

 the year; but that foliage contains much disposable organisable 

 matter, which once formed a part of the parent tuber. Any person 

 who will pay close attention to the growth of produce of early crops 

 of potatoes, which have sprung from large tubers, will readily obtain 

 ample evidence of the truth of this position. The variation in the 

 comparative growth of fruits of different species in similar seasons 

 frequently arises, I have good reason to believe, from the more, or 

 less, perfect state of the reservoir formed in the preceding year ; and 

 every experienced gardener knows that under any given external 

 circumstances, the blossom of his fruit trees sets best, when the 

 preceding season has been warm and bright, and when his trees, in 

 such season, have not expended their sap in supporting heavy crops 

 of fruit. 



Note by the Secretary. -The quality of the Ispahan Melons referred to in the pre- 

 ceding paper, was found, when the fruit was tasted at the house of the Society, to be cl 

 the highest excellence which it is supposed that the Melon is capable of attaining in th.s 

 country. 



VOL. I. 2nd series 



