410 Notices of Communications to the Society, of which 



the Amande amere, or bitter Almond, there are varieties dif- 

 fering in the size of the nuts, which are dark coloured, with 

 hard shells and bitter kernels. 



In a communication of the same date, M. Vilmorin, in 

 making some observations on the account of the varieties of 

 Onion, published in the Transactions of the Society,* describes 

 the Ognon Pyriformf and the Ognon Blanc de Florence of the 

 Bon Jardinier. The former is the Tripoli Onion of our gar- 

 dens. The latter is a smaller and early variety of the Silver- 

 skinned Onion ; the seed of this is regularly obtained from 

 Italy, without which renewal it would in France degenerate 

 into the Ognon Blanc hatif, which latter would also become 

 the Ognon Blanc ordinaire, or Silver-skinned Onion of our 

 gardens, if care were not bestowed on its culture. 



April 4, 1820. John Braddick, Esq. in a letter to 

 the Secretary, under this date, states that he had adopted 

 a method of grafting scions of Apples, Pears, Plums, and 

 Cherries, with the quality of which he wished to be soon 

 acquainted, which generally enabled him to get some produce 

 from the grafts in the year succeeding that in which they 

 are worked. He works his graft on a fruit-bearing branch 

 of an established tree, cutting it down to within half an inch 

 of a fruit spur, and placing his scion on the end of the 

 branch so cut away ; the graft thus being fixed close to, and 

 above the fruit-spur of the tree, in the same season acquires 

 the habit of a fruit-spur, and forms flower buds which 

 blossom and bear fruit in the following year. In like 

 manner the buds of Peach and Nectarine trees, of one year 



* See vol. iii. page 369. f Ibid, page 376. 



