PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
431 
same year. A pot which contains a quantity 
of mould equal to a cube of fourteen inches, 
has been found large enough for a vine whose 
foliage occupied a space of twenty square feet ; 
water holding manure in solution being abun- 
dantly given ; and I have seen grapes acquire 
a larger size, and other fruits a higher flavour, 
under such management than under any other. 
The supposed necessity of frequently re- 
moving fruit-trees, which grow in pots, to 
other pots of larger dimensions, appears to 
present a good deal of inconvenience ; but I 
have readily obviated this necessity, by means 
which I can confidently recommend to the 
attention of gardeners. When the plant or 
firuit-tree is first placed in the pot, in which 
it is long to remain, I mix with the compost 
some material, in greater or less quantity, which 
is capable of ultimately affording nutriment, 
but which will decompose slowly. In some cases 
I have used with success slender half-decayed 
branches from my wood pile ; and in others 
I have employed sound chips, chiefly of apple- 
tree, mixed with mould, and in sufficient 
quantity to occupy at least one-fourth of the 
space afforded by the pot. As the roots of 
the plant increase, the lifeless wood gradually 
decomposes, at the same time giving food and 
space to the roots, which consequently do not 
become injuriously compressed in the pot. I 
possess a nectarine tree which has grown nine 
years in the same pot. Several successive 
crops of fungi usually appear upon the sur- 
face of the pots under the preceding circum- 
stances ; but I have had no reason to think 
these injurious. — Letter by T. A. Knight, 
Esq. 
[Where very early forced fruit is required, 
the practice of growing the trees in pots has 
often been adopted with advantage ; as there 
is much risk in obtaining a very early crop ; 
and a failure of potted plants, of which a 
supply should be kept on hand, is less fatal 
to obtaining a crop than if permanent plants 
were exposed to the same chances and vicissi- 
tudes. Vines in pots are often forced ; peach 
and nectarine trees more rarely ; cherries 
frequently. All the small fruit, as goose- 
berries, raspberries, currants, &c, may be 
forced in pots. Plants for the purpose ought 
to be well prepared.] 
Charcoal for Hyacinths. — Sir Thomas 
Franklin once stated the effect of charcoal in 
restoring to health a hyacinth root, which was 
prepared for blowing in water, and after 
being a short time in the glass, threw out 
only a few fibres, which soon died at their ex- 
tremities, the bulb becoming offensively 
putrid. A table- spoonf id of powdered char- 
coal was stirred into the water, which imme- 
diately corrected the bad smell ; but on the 
second morning after, it began to return. 
Charcoal and water being renewed three times 
at two days' interval, the root became per- 
fectly sweet, and flowered as well and nearly 
as soon as one of the same variety (Groot 
Vorst) which was placed on the chimney-piece 
near it. 
[This putridity could not have passed be- 
yond one or two outer skins, because it was 
impossible to recover the rotten portion ; but 
charcoal will sweeten anything ; even putrid 
fish would no longer smell offensive if well 
covered with charcoal.] 
Lilium japonicum. — In August of 1821, 
Mr. Brookes, of Ball's Pond, sent a specimen 
of Lilium Japonicum to the Horticultural 
Society, with the following communication : — 
The bulb was planted in the spring in a brick 
pit, used for the growth of Moutans, and at 
that time it was about the size of a small 
Nonpareil apple, being indiscriminately taken 
from a large number imported from China. 
The height of the flowering stems, of which 
it threw up five, was full five feet ; four of 
the stems produced three flowers on each, in 
which the length of the petals is about six 
inches, and the expansion of the flower about 
seven inches ; the remaining stem produced 
but one flower. The bulb was planted in 
equal portions of Wimbledon bog mould 
and strong loam, and until the top of the 
plant reached the glass it was occasionally 
covered by the light of the frame. Lilium 
japonicum appears to be sufficiently hardy to 
endure our winters, as I have had a bed of 
them in the open ground two years without 
protection ; the leaves and stems were, how- 
ever, much injured by the wind and rain, 
while growing, and none attained a height 
exceeding fifteen inches. I am therefore of 
opinion that if treated as a hardy plant, it should 
be grown in a situation well protected by 
trees and shrubs, and not in the front of the 
flower border. Like most of its congeners, 
it delights in shade, and is well adapted to 
ornament thick and close shrubberies where 
other herbaceous plants do not thrive ; it is 
easily propagated by separating the scales of 
the bulbs, each of which in time will become 
a good plant ; it forms also small bulbs on the 
stem, below the surface of the ground. — Let- 
ter by S. Brookes, Esq. 
Management of Cauliflower Plants. 
— I sow the seeds of the Early Cauliflower 
in a south border, in the beginning of July, 
and as soon as the plants come up I thin 
them out to twelve or fourteen inches apart, 
where I suffer them to remain, keeping them 
clean, and watering them occasionally till 
about the middle of November, by which 
time they all produce heads from ten to thirty 
inches in circumference. As they are not 
hardy enough to bear more than three or four 
