C 274 ] 



XXXIII. On the Cultivation of Mesembryanthemums. In 

 a Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. William Mowbray, 

 Gardener to the Earl of Mount Morris, F. H. S., #c. 



Read December 3, 1822. 



Sir, 



I send, as you desired, an account of my method of manag- 

 ing Mesembryanthemums, the different sorts of which, when 

 planted out of pots contiguous to each other, have a most 

 beautiful effect, and are admired by every observer. The 

 bed I used for this purpose was made in a pit which runs 

 along the front wall of one of the hot-houses at Arley Hall, 

 and is composed of good rich garden mould, mixed with a fair 

 portion of fresh loam. In the spring of 1821, I planted out 

 as many plants as filled three lights, putting nine or ten under 

 each light of different sorts, such as, inclaudens, aurantium, 

 perfoliatum, deltoides, barbatum, and other species of diffe- 

 rent habits ; the strong growing kinds were put towards the 

 back, and the dwarf ones in the front. They soon grew very 

 vigorously, and flowered exceedingly well, having a very 

 different appearance from that they exhibit when confined to 

 small pots ; many of them continued in blossom all winter, 

 and until the spring, when I gave them a good thinning, for 

 they were spreading over each other, and mixing together. 

 At that time I planted the remainder of the pit, which is 

 forty feet long and four feet wide in the clear, I also covered 

 the surface with stones of different sorts, which were laid 



