382 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
specimens exhibited the varieties between the 
Oxford Red and the Donna Maria white 
wheat, as well as those between the Egyptian 
Cone and the Oxford Red. In the produce 
of the latter cross, some of the ears had awns, 
while others were without them. Mr. Maund 
stated that the new varieties thus obtained in 
his experiments appeared to possess great 
luxuriance and promise of fertility. He 
thought it not unlikely that eventually not 
only any given external character interme- 
diate between those of the wheats selected for 
the occasion may be obtained, but that the 
chemical nature of the grain may be favour- 
ably influenced for any given purpose required. 
The President on the part of the Council 
having then expressed to Mr. Maund the 
thanks which the Council, on the motion of 
the Duke of Richmond, seconded by Sir 
Robert Price, had voted to him for his atten- 
tion in submitting to them his interesting and 
valuable results, requested that he would pre- 
pare for the Journal Committee, in the course 
of the autumn, a detailed statement of jus ex- 
periments and their results, including not only 
a reference to the scientific circumstances of 
the fact, as connected with the laws of vege- 
table physiology, or the changes produced in 
the chemical constitution of the plant, but also 
to the more homely but not less important re- 
sult of the practical value of his products as 
obtained by the miller and the baker. Mr. 
Maund has various other experiments in pro- 
gress similar to the above, he having been 
engaged in investigating this subject about 
three years, and is, we believe, the first bota- 
nist who has turned his attention to the im- 
provement of wheat by hybridization. It is, 
at the present moment, one of the most im- 
portant subjects that can engage the attention 
of scientific men, and we hope that Mr. Maund, 
as the first to apply his favourite science so 
beneficially for the agriculturist, will be en- 
abled to proceed and carry out what he seems 
so well to have begun. — Worcester Journal. 
Dwaef Dahlias for Bedding. — The 
Dahlia is well adapted for growing dwarf, in 
the manner of Verbenas, and in this way 
makes beds of the most gorgeous appearance. 
The management required is by no means dif- 
ficult, though it requires considerable attention 
to produce a fine effect. Those sorts only 
which are naturally of a dwarf habit should 
be chosen, and as there are abundance of this 
class now in cultivation, the selection is not 
difficult. In planting them, they should be 
placed as nearly flat as possible ; as fast as the 
shoots grow they should be fastened down, not 
in the usual way with pegs only, but with 
small pieces of bass tied to a long wooden peg ; 
the bass should be tied loosely round the shoot, 
allowing free room for future growth, and the 
peg may be gradually driven deeper into the 
soil as the downward growth renders it safe — 
without this care the shoots are apt to be 
broken. This applies principally to the lead- 
ing shoots; the laterals being left to grow to 
flower upward they will generally want thin- 
ning, as this mode of growing them increases 
their natural luxuriance greatly. The follow- 
ing sorts are well adapted to this kind of cul- 
ture : — Marchioness of Ormonde (Browne's), 
clear white, tipped with violet - purple ; 
Dazzle (Keyne's), rich dark scarlet ; Duchess 
of St. Albans (Whale's), delicate primrose, 
tipped with mulberry; Bermondsey Bee (Proc- 
tor's), deep purple ; Orange Superb (Dod's), 
dark orange ; Lady Grey (Harrison's), light 
lilac. There are many others equally good, 
but these I have tried with complete suc- 
cess. — J. 
Economical Heating. — A few years a"-o, 
a friend of mine wished to heat a pit intended 
for growing Melons in ; the pit was thirty 
feet long, by seven feet wide. Not wishing 
to be at the expense of cast-iron pipes, he set 
about devising what would be the best plan to 
adopt for his purpose. After considering 
awhile what would be most useful, and at the 
same time least expensive, he determined 
upon trying hot-water. For this purpose he 
got an old cast-iron boiler, about the shape 
and size of the copper boilers used by house- 
wives — that is, about eighteen inches wide at 
top, ten or twelve deep, and ten inches inside 
diameter at bottom ; he built this into the 
wall at the end of the pit ; fixed a large slate 
with cement, as a lid, and attached common 
round drain tiles, jointed with cement, for the 
pipes : a hole was made in the centre of the 
slate, to receive the end of one of the tiles, 
which was well cemented in, and served as a 
flow pipe ; and a small hole near the bottom 
had about two feet of iron pipe fixed in, for a 
return pipe. The pipes went along the front 
of the pit and returned. At the end opposite 
the boiler, oue of the common large tile clay 
pans, about as large as the boiler, was fixed a 
little above the level of the upper pipe, to hold 
a supply of water. This completed the ap- 
paratus, which was fixed entirely by his own 
hands ; and a more useful, and easily heated 
apparatus I have not yet seen. Some of the 
Melons were ripe in the end of May, and for 
nearly five months the same plants kept up a 
succession of ripe fruit, of good flavour and 
fair size. Of course no fire was used during 
the greater part of this time, after the first of 
the fruit was ripe : more depended on the 
system of managing the vines (stems) after this 
period, than on any thing else ; but at the 
same time, this shows how very simple means 
may be made to give very satisfactory results 
when properly guided. Nothing gives greater 
