CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS., 
573 
in London. I found in my greenhouse, at 11 
r.M., 15° difference between the bottom and 
top of the house (the house was glazed with 
small squares), and the question occurred, how 
could I equalize the temperature. Sheet glass, 
and glass air-tight for the bottom lights would, 
I imagined, effect the desideratum, and, as I 
afterwards found, I had calculated rightly ; 
for, by having the bottom lights so glazed, at 
II p.m. the thermometers have indicated equal 
temperatures ever since, and of the good 
effects of this on grapes I have had abundant 
proof." 
Substitute for glass. — In the Revue 
Scientifique et Industrielle, it is stated that 
Prof. Schonbein, who invented the gun-cotton, 
has discovered a material which is equivalent 
to malleable glass. He renders papier machee 
transparent, by causing it to undergo a certain 
metamorphosis, which he calls Catalytic. Of 
this material he forms window-panes, vases, 
bottles, &c. perfectly impermeable to water, 
perfectly transparent, and not at all brittle like 
glass. Whether it will prove useful for gar- 
den purposes remains to be seen. 
Border yellow Turnip. — This variety of 
turnip is strongly recommended by Mr. 
Drewett, Sir W. Heathcote's gardener, as a 
vegetable of excellent quality and very hardy, 
and therefore well suited for a winter crop 
(Gard. Journ. 1847, 197). A sample of this 
kind, also called the red-top hybrid, sown in 
July 1846, stood unharmed through the 
winter of 1846-7 ; and when sown about that 
time — (July or August) — it does not grow 
beyond the size of ordinary garden turnips. 
Amherstia nobilis. — This splendid plant, 
described by Dr. Wallich as " profusely orna- 
mented with pendulous racemes of large ver- 
milion-coloured blossoms, unequalled in the 
Flora of the East Indies, and perhaps not sur- 
passed in magnificence and elegance in any 
part of the world," is about to enrich the col- 
lections at Kew and Windsor, Captain Munro 
having recently brought to this country no 
less than five plants in good condition. The 
only plant in the country previously was at 
Chatsworth. The tree is represented to be 
like the laburnum, but foliage and flowers 
three times the size ; the latter comparable 
with those of Erythrina Crista-galli. 
Apios tuberosa. — This plant has been re- 
commended to be cultivated for culinary pur- 
poses in aid of the potato crops ; the tuberous 
roots, which grow in strings like beads, Mr. 
E. A. Hamp finds to be sweet and good in a 
cooked state. They are not, however, nearly 
equal to the potato, and as the latter plant 
stands in a more promising condition than it 
recently did, as regards future cultivation, it 
is not likely the Apios will be much cultivated. 
It may, however, be grown for variety. 
Rhubarb buds. — These have been recom- 
mended for tarts ; being taken just as they 
are emerging, and so as to thin the plantation 
where too thick,- Their use has, however, in 
some cases, been followed by serious sickness 
and illness ; and as the plant contains much 
oxalic acid, they can hardly be recommended. 
Lilium lancifolium. — These magnificent 
plants have now been proved to be perfectly 
hardy, and may be regarded as indispensable 
ornaments of the flower-garden as well as the 
conservatory in the autumnal months. Mr. 
Groom, of Clapham Rise, sent two plants to 
the meeting of the Horticultural Society in 
September, each a single stem, bearing up- 
wards of forty flower-buds. They had been 
lifted out of the open border, where the bulbs 
had been planted in the common garden soil, 
well broken up, but not manured — manure 
being considered unnecessary in the culture of 
the lily— -in the end of November 1845, in a 
bed, at fifteen inches asunder, and covered 3| 
inches deep with light soil. They were not 
protected in winter in any way ; but after the 
stems died down, the soil was carefully re- 
moved down to the bulbs, and replaced by 
fresh material. The flowers were better 
coloured than those produced in a greenhouse. 
Now that these Japan lilies have been ascer- 
tained to be hardy, they must become great 
favourites for out-door decoration in autumn. 
Mr. Groom has also raised some fine new 
varieties from seed. 
Meudon Pine-apples. — A queen pine- 
apple, grown at Meudon, and sent to the 
editor of the Gardener's Chronicle, is re- 
ported to have weighed eight pounds when 
cut, and to have been in form, crown, colour, 
symmetry, and fragrance, faultless, but in 
flavour worthless. M. Pelvilain, the gardener 
at Meudon, adopts the method of planting out 
into a bed of soil — peat, very like English peat., 
sandy and fibrous, containing rather less iron 
and more lime than Wimbledon peat. A 
smart bottom heat is kept up by the agency 
of stable dung. The bad flavour is alleged 
to be the result of insufficient airing. M. 
Pelvilain transplants his plants into the fruit- 
ing pit when they approach maturity, and 
adopts the maiden-plant system, in contradis- 
tinction from Mr. Hamilton, who retains the 
old stocks for an unlimited period. The 
Meudon plants are always kept in pots in the 
winter ; they are all planted out the first 
summer, and are fruited either in pots or 
planted out in the second summer. 
Vegetable parasitism. — M. Decaisne has 
discovered that Melampyrum, Pedicularis, 
Odontites, and other Rhinanthaceous plants, 
are in reality parasites, deriving their support 
from the roots of the herbage among which 
they grow. This seems to explain the reason 
