1:32 Notices of Communications to the Society, of which 



This is continued daily, as long as the crops of Grapes re- 

 main in use. The fire in the day, aided by the circulation 

 of the air, renders the whole interior of the houses perfectly 

 dry, so that no damp exists in them when shut up ; a night 

 fire, on the contrary, with the houses closed, creates a va- 

 pour, which causes the fruit to become mouldy, and to de- 

 cay. With the treatment above described, Mr. Teiompson 

 has Grapes in perfection all the latter part of the year, and 

 even till the beginning of February, at which time, though 

 somewhat shrivelled, they are perfectly good. The sorts of 

 Grapes he thus cultivates are the Grisly, Black, and White 

 Frontiniacs, the Dutch Sweet Water, and the Black Da- 

 mascus. 



At the same Meeting. A communication was read from 

 Mr. Thomas Blake, gardener to James Vere, Esq. of 

 Kensington Gore, describing his treatment of the Azalea 

 Indica, and his method of bringing it into flower early in the 

 season. The compost in which he keeps the plants is peat 

 earth, to which has been added one quarter of leaf mould, 

 or, if that cannot be procured, of rotten dung very much 

 decayed. The young plants, which are struck in the sum- 

 mer, grow about nine inches high before the winter ; these 

 are kept in small sixty-sized pots through the winter, and in 

 spring are shifted into large sixty-sized pots. In two or three 

 months the roots will fill the pots, when they are again 

 shifted into some of a larger size. The young plants are thus 

 changed into new and larger pots twice in every year, dur- 

 ing the summer, until the autumn of the third year, when 

 their buds begin to swell, and to shew for flower. Mr. 

 Blake does not suffer the leading shoot to hang loose, but 



