207 
THE WEST LONDON GARDENERS’ ASSOCIATION FOR 
MUTUAL INSTRUCTION. 
January 26 , 1841 . 
Mr. Shearer read his paper on the forcing of the Hyacinth.— 
In the beginning of October a few are placed in pots and glasses, 
preferring the single sorts for early forcing, which, if required, 
could be flowered at Christmas. Others are planted at the end 
of October, and the last succession about the middle of November. 
The pots upright thirty-two’s, about seven inches deep and four 
inches wide ; the soil half road-sand and half leaf-mould, with 
good drainage, the bulb gently pressed into the soil above the 
brim of the pot. They are placed on coal ashes, in any open 
spare part of the garden, covered eight inches with old tan or 
leaf-mould, as a rustiness, or canker, was produced on the young 
leaves and flowers by coming in contact with coal ashes. In 
eight or ten weeks they will generally be found in a fit state to be 
removed to the greenhouse, or any cold pit. From thence the 
most forward are removed to a house in which the temperature is 
kept from 60° to 65°, and placed about eighteen inches from the 
glass. If any showed indications of expanding their flowers 
before the stem was of sufficient length above the bulb, a piece 
of grey paper, of the desired length of the stem, was wrapped 
around the pot, and then placed in a cucumber frame, with the 
temperature from 70° to 75°. In the latter end of December, or 
early in January, they rise six or eight inches in about ten days ; 
if later in the season, they advance quicker. When fully expanded, 
they are taken to the temperature of 60°, and finally to the green¬ 
house. He adopts the same practice with them when grown in 
glasses ; first placing them in a dark room, to encourage the 
protrusion of roots, with a change of water once a week until 
they are removed into the frame or forcing-house, when a fresh 
supply should be given every day. The constituent elements by 
which plants are supported was thus explained :—That carbon is 
obtained by them in the form of carbonic acid gas derived from 
the atmosphere, generated there by the respiration of animals, 
and in the soil by the decay of vegetable matter ; and this with its 
