CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS. 
191 
Adenocarpus intermedin.--, (the E interme- 
diate Adenocarpus,) is a very ornamental 
species, growing four feet high. It has tri- 
foliolate leaves, and long terminal spikes of 
yellow flowers, which are produced profusely 
from May to July. It is a native of dry. 
gravelly, sunny places in Portugal, in Spain, 
in Sicily, and in Naples. 
Adenocarpus parvifolius, (the small-leaved 
Adenocarpus,) is a shrub of the same habit 
as the preceding, and growing to about 
the same size. It has trifoliolate leaves, and 
loose spikes of yellow flowers, produced in 
June and July. It is a native of the sunny 
heaths of the west of France. 
Adenocarpus telonensis, (the Toulon Ade- 
nocarpus,) is a shrub of four or five feet high, 
with trifoliolate leaves, and small bunches 
of yellow flowers. It is a native of heaths 
and sterile places in France. The flowers are 
produced in June and July. 
There are two half-hardy shrubs, A. folio- 
losus, and A. frankenioides, both of which have 
yellow flowers, and both would probably succeed 
in mild winters with a very slight protection. 
The species of Adenocarpus are very orna- 
mental plants ; they grow freely, aud produce 
their blossoms in profusion if planted out in 
garden soil of ordinary quality. Neither do 
they require any peculiarities of treatment ; 
the occasional shortening in of a branch, which 
may have extended unduly beyond the others, 
being the chief attention they require after 
they are once planted out. They form pretty 
plants, either as single detached specimens, or 
when occupying a front position in the shrub- 
bery. 
CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS, 
AND ORIGINAL NOTES CONNECTED WITH HORTICULTURE 
AND NATURAL HISTORY. 
Maturing Grapes out of doors. — A 
few ripe grapes may be had, with very little 
trouble, in a perfectly matured state, by every 
one who has a vine, a common garden-frame, 
and a very small quantity of fermenting mate- 
rials. This is done by taking down a branch 
of convenient size, and laying it within the 
frame, which is placed on a slight hot-bed. 
As a case in point, we may mention an in- 
stance which occurred within our knowledge, 
where a person who had just taken possession 
of a small establishment, found an old and 
almost worthless Sweet-water vine at one side 
of the dwelling. The vine had neither figure 
nor well-arranged bearing wood ; but it ap- 
peared that a branch might be brought down 
and laid within a frame. A common workman 
prepared one, which was painted, glazed, and 
completed at home. Two or three loads of 
very indifferent manure, which were on the 
premises, were laid in a square mass in front 
of the vine, but a yard or so from the wall ; 
this might be a yard high, but would have 
been better four feet. The frame was placed 
on the dung, and slates were laid on the 
manure within ; a lath trellis was constructed 
a foot above the manure. A branch of the 
vine was then brought down, laid in the frame 
through a notch made at the back, and the 
small shoots being tied conveniently to the 
trellis, the lights were closed. This was done 
about mid-April. For a time the mass heated 
pretty well, and the buds enlarged : they 
showed abundance of fruit, which swelled 
freely, and produced many scores of fine, 
luscious clusters, rich in colour and flavour. 
No more dung was added ; but had there been 
plenty at hand to line and renew the bed, the 
crop would have ripened in July. The parent 
vine, though conveying all the sap from the 
ground to the inclosed branch, did not ripen 
a single good berry. 
Orchards on River-banks. — Few situa- 
tions combine so many advantages for the 
plantation of orchards or fruit-gardens, as the 
low grounds that form the banks of rivers. 
As an instance how valuable such a situation 
may be rendered under fruit-trees, there is a 
small piece of ground of this description, not 
exceeding three quarters of an acre, (in Kil- 
kenny,) which is leased at a rent of fifty guineas 
per annum, solely on account of its fruit. It 
is planted with Fear and Apple trees, some of 
them nearly two hundred years old; one of which, 
a Pear-tree, often produces twenty thousand 
saleable fruit in the season. — Horticultural 
Transactions. 
Early Tulips. — Until of late years nothing 
but the two or three ordinary Tulips, which, 
by the way, happen to be nearly the worst we 
cultivate, were at all known ; but we have 
now from sixty to eighty varieties annually 
imported from Holland ; and we believe there 
is, in the King's-road, Chelsea, a garden in 
which all the principal ones can be seen. It 
is singular, however, that they preserve, amidst 
all the varieties, a distinctness that preserves 
them from all suspicion of belonging to the 
late, or show varieties. They are gay, but 
there is no distinctness in the markings ; they 
are varied, but all the varieties are cloudy ; 
and if among a great lot of seedlings, from 
late or show flowers, there happen to be any 
break away from their proper season, and 
bloom early, they partake of all the roughness 
and indistinctness that characterize the early 
bloomers. In looking into the details of the 
properties of these early flowers, we liiul that 
they are, for the most part, of a more flimsy 
texture; not that they are, in all cases, thinner 
than the later bloomers, but more soft. There 
is, however, in these early varieties, a charm 
which the others have not ; they come when 
