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XXXVI. On the Cultivation of the Tetragonia expansa. In 

 a Letter to the Secretary. By the Rev. John Bransby, 

 A. M. F.H.S. 



Read March 4, 1823. 



Dear Sir, 



I have sent you, as I promised, some seed of the Tetragonia 

 expansa. I find that the best method of cultivating it, is 

 to put the seeds singly into garden pots, and to raise them 

 in the Cucumber or Melon frame, as other tender annuals are 

 raised, and at the latter end of May, or beginning of June, 

 when the weather is sufficiently settled, to allow the putting 

 out ridge Cucumbers, to plant them out at least five or six 

 feet asunder, in the places they are to occupy during the 

 summer. 



For the reception of each plant I take out earth enough 

 to admit a barrow-full of rich rotten dung, and covering it a 

 few inches with mould, turn the plant out of the pot into 

 the centre ; by the settling of the dung a sort of basin will 

 be formed, very beneficial for receiving and retaining mois- 

 ture so essential to luxuriant growth. When the plants 

 begin to grow and expand themselves, the ground under and 

 about them should be covered half an inch thick with sand 

 or road-drift, which will keep the plants dry, will enable the 

 gardener to free them from grass and weeds, as well as to 

 pick off the leaves in a better state ; it will be particularly 

 useful also in preserving the seed, which becoming ripe in 

 the axils of the older leaves of the plant, falls off during the 



