490 Notices of Communications to the Society, of which 



dispersed shower more or less fine according to the fineness 

 of the perforations in the cap at d.d. When it is neces- 

 sary to use the syringe to throw a full and unbroken stream, 

 the other cap is used, see Fig. 2. In this the valve is driven 

 in at c, as in the other caps, and is discharged with much 

 force through the pipe. To avoid the inconvenience arising 

 from the water rushing upon the hand at the upper end of 

 the syringe, Mr. Read has placed a small bent pipe at the 

 shoulder of the tube, Fig 1, e, by which the confined air or 

 any water which may rise above the piston, can escape with- 

 out annoying the operator. 



Mr. Thomas Ayres of Duffield, near Derby, communica- 

 ted to the meeting, on the 27th of August, 1821, a descrip- 

 tion of a remarkably large Gooseberry plant, growing at 

 Duffield, and of two others in the garden at Overton Hall. 

 That at Duffield is in the garden of Mr. William Bates, 

 a market gardener; it is planted on the east side of a 

 steep hill, the substratum of the soil being a hard grit stone. 

 It is ascertained to have been planted at least forty-six 

 years ; the branches extend to twelve yards in circumference, 

 and have produced several pecks of fruit annually for these 

 last thirty years. It is usually manured with soap suds and 

 the drainings from the dung hill. The two others in the 

 garden at Overton Hall, near Chesterfield, the seat of the 

 late Sir Joseph Banks, are both nearly of the same size. 

 The younger plant is trained to a building, the north and 

 west sides of which it has entirely covered; it was planted 

 thirty years ago. It measures fifty-three feet four inches 

 from one extremity to the other, and yields on an average 



