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XXV. On the Culture of Hyacinths. In a Letter to the 

 Secretary. By the Hon. and. Rev. William Herbert. 

 D. C. L. F. H. S. $c. 



Read July 4, 1820. 



Dear Sir, 



The Dutch mode of treating Hyacinths has been fully de- 

 tailed in a work by St. Simon, entitled Des Jacintes, pub- 

 lished at Amsterdam in 1768, in 4to. in which every thing that 

 can be said, and a great deal more than need be said, about 

 a Hyacinth, will be found. Complying with St. Simon's 

 directions as nearly as possible, I produced for several years 

 successively, at my villa in Surrey, where I had the advan- 

 tage of the vicinity of the fine sand of Shirley common, 

 Hyacinth flowers fully equal, if not superior, to those ob- 

 tained from the best Dutch bulbs ; but since my collection 

 of plants has been removed into this part of Yorkshire, where 

 fine sand can only be obtained by the tedious process of 

 breaking stones and reducing them to powder with an iron 

 hammer, I have been prevented from cultivating them with 

 equal success. 



The compost used at Haarlem is rotten cow-dung, rotten 

 leaves, and fine sand. In making this compost the Dutch 

 gardeners prefer the softer leaves of elm, lime, and birch, 

 and reject those of oak, chestnut, walnut, beach, plane, &c. 

 which do not rot so quickly. The cow-dung which they use 

 is also of a peculiar quality, being collected in the winter, 

 when the cattle are stall-fed upon dry food, without any mix- 



