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Transactions of the Horticultural Society. Vol, vii. Part II. 4to. London, 1828.

[Continued from No. III. p. 175.]

THE following are the principal contents of this Number, which is illustrated by four copper-plates, two of which are coloured, and many wood engravings.

XXIV. Account of a Mode of managing Peach Trees in an early Peach House. By Mr. Walter Henderson.

Of all the fruits that are forced into bearing at unseasonable periods, the peach is one of the most delicate, and which requires the greatest care and good management. Mr. Henderson, who has the reputation of being unusually successful, states, that the mode of treatment he adopts is the following:

The trees are trained on trellis-work at a short distance from the glass; the house is warmed by a single flue running along the middle of the house; and by a pit between the flue and back wall, filled with decayed leaves, which are continually imparting moisture to the atmosphere.

The house is shut up about the first of December, and either gently warmed by fire, or not, according to the state of the weather. As soon as the buds swell, as much as possible of the wood that bore the previous season is cut away, and the younger shoots are tied into their places; not having previously been interfered with, but allowed to grow wild. The best shoots being selected, they are shortened according to their strength, care being taken always to cut them down to a leaf bud. The shoots are eventually laid in at the distance of from six to nine inches, and a great number of flower-buds are rubbed off, the strongest only being allowed to expand. As soon as the peaches are set, their leaves are gently sprinkled in the forenoon with water, once in every six or seven days; about the middle of March they are sprinkled in the afternoon. By this time the trees are producing the new shoots which are to bear a crop in the succeeding year: these are reduced in number by thinning and rubbing off, none being preserved except where there is room for them; such as are left are not tied down, but allowed to grow in their natural way, by which means the shoots on which the fruit is growing are not disturbed. As the season advances, the trees are sprinkled twice each week between four and five in the afternoon; this, however, is only done in warm, sunny weather. About a fortnight after the young peaches have stoned, the sprinkling is stopped, much

more air is given to the house, and no fire-heat is maintained during the day; but if the weather is dark or wet, a little fire is applied at night; if the weather is warm and dry, the house is exposed to the air all night without fire-heat. By this management, the peaches acquire the unusual weight of half a pound each, and occasionally even that of ten ounces. The trees submitted to this treatment have undergone the same process for twenty-seven successive years, and are still in good health, XXV. Remarks upon the Comparative Advantages of Grafting Pears upon Quince Stocks. By Mr. Thomas Torbron.

It is a well known law in vegetable physiology, that in proportion as leaf-buds, or as Darwin called them, viviparous buds, are produced by plants, flowers, or oviparous buds, cease to be developed, and vice versa. Hence it is obvious, that whatever has a tendency to check the former, and favour the production of the latter, is beneficial to gardeners. Practice has shown that, by grafting fruit trees upon one kind of stock, the tendency to produce leaf-buds is increased, and that other stocks exercise a contrary influence. Gardeners in this country have long been well aware how to apply these facts to the cultivation of the apple, but they are little acquainted with the influence of the stock upon other kinds of fruits. The object of the writer of this paper is to show the benefit of grafting pears upon the quince-stock, instead of upon their own species. He states that the increase of produce by that means is on the average as 7.6 to 1 in favour of the quince; and in one case he found it as 15.1 to 1. Pears grafted upon the quince have also the merit of not occupying so much space as others; but it is to be doubted whether they be as long lived.

XXVI. Description, with Plans, of a Hot-wall. By Mr. John Hay. Without the aid of heated walls, our friends in the North would have little chance of raising many of the good things in their gardens, which are produced with us by the climate alone. To them, we doubt not, these plans will be highly useful. They cannot well be explained without figures; we must, therefore, refer such of our readers as are interested in the matter, to the work itself.

XXVII.

Report upon the New or Rare Plants which flowered in the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, between March, 1825, and March, 1826. Part II.

This is a continuation of former reports of the same nature. The present paper comprehends twenty-seven species, with

numerous varieties of hardy trees and shrubs, of which thirteen species, and ten varieties, are new. Several are highly interesting to lovers of gardening.

XXVIII. On the Culture of the Mango and Cherimoya.

By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., F.R.S.

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Upon a consideration of the failure which has generally attended attempts at cultivating these plants, and the circum. stances under which the mango has succeeded so well in the garden of the Earl of Powis, Mr. Knight is led to the conclu. sion, that being plunged in a bark bed, or in some similar situation, where the roots can be kept in a constant state of humidity, and not exposed to the action of the air, is the secret which it was necessary to discover. This appears to Mr. Knight to be accounted for upon the principles explained by M. Dutrochet, in his work upon the influence of galvanism upon the motions of the fluids of plants; and he does uot doubt that the ill success of his former experiments arose from an excessive or injurious action of electric matter upon the roots of his plants, owing to the exposure of the surfaces of the pits to the air.

XXIX. Some Account of the Mela-Carla, Mal-Carle, or Charles Apple. By John Lindley, Esq., F.R.S.

This is an account, illustrated by a superb engraving, of a remarkable Italian apple, native of the territory of the Finale, in Liguria. By Gallesio, an Italian pomologist, it is stated to ripen in September, to keep well till the following spring, and even to remain fresh till the succeeding autumn. In October it is a pale yellowish-green, covered with a bright red on one side, and has a breaking, sweet, high-flavoured flesh; in November it becomes more tender, and finally its red colour fades a little, its green changes to a waxy yellow, its perfume diminishes, and its flesh becomes extremely delicate, without losing any part of its flavour. In short, it has no equal in beauty, tenderness of flesh, delicacy of flavour or fragrance.

Whether in this country it will acquire all these good qualities, remains to be proved. A south wall in a warm, dry soil is recommended for it.

XXX. A Review of Fifty Kinds of Grapes, described by Mr. Speechly in his Treatise on the Vine. By Mr. Joseph Thompson. This is a capital review of the sorts of vines described by Mr. Speechly in his valuable treatise. Mr. Thompson has charge of the garden formerly under the direction of Mr. Speechly, and his observations have all the weight of the best authority. They do not bear curtailment.

XXXI. An Account of the Species of Calochortus, a Genus of American Plants. By Mr. David Douglas, A.L.S.

Three species of this very handsome genus are described by Mr. Douglas, from materials collected by himself for the Horticultural Society; one other is referred to, of which too little is known to enable it to be recorded; and Fritillaria barbata of Kunth is cited as being probably a fifth species. The only one in the garden is C. macrocarpus, a most beautiful plant, having the habit of Tigridia, with flowers of the same size, but of a deep violet blue. Three species are figured-one from a plant that flowered in the Society's gardén, and two from dried specimens.

XXXII. An Account of some Improvement in the Construction of Hotbeds. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., F.R.S.

By means of a simple contrivance of wooden or other pipes, Mr. Knight succeeds in keeping up a constant introduction of fresh warm air into the atmosphere of the hot-bed; a most important improvement, if we consider what the general nature is of the air of hot-beds.

An Attempt to prove that Ava was the Ophir of Solomon. By John Ranking, Esq.

OPHIR, Aufer, Aufr, Afer*, is one of the most interesting and remarkable of the uncertainties in historical literature;

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"An ignis fatuus that bewitches,

And leads men into pools and ditches +."

Peru, Hispaniola, Guinea, Armenia, South Arabia, Sofala, Ceylon, Malacca, Sumatra, have all had their advocates. The last treatise is by Mr. Bruce; who, following D'Anville and others, contends for Sofala: and which, says Dr. Robertson, seems to establish the truth. The author of the article "Ophir" in Rees's Cyclopædia does not agree with that eminent historian; and the writer of the dissertation in the Encyclopædia Britannica, equally in doubt, ends his remarks thus:

Sub judice lis est.

Bruce's laborious calculations regarding the monsoons are

*So spelt by Dr. Doig.

+ Hudibras,

India, p. 9.

found to be blunders *; and he has confined the cargoes to gold, silver, and ivory: omitting peacocks, monkeys, precious stones, spices, almug-trees, and ebony.

Buffon insists positively that peacocks were not wild in Africa till they were introduced by the Portuguese, and that therefore Ophir could not be in Africa. Alexander the Great, when he entered India, is said to have been much struck with the beauty of the peacocks, never before having seen one. As to the first five places mentioned above, there are obvious insuperable objections to them all. The three last have, neither of them, ever been known to possess such abundant riches and ivory as were imported by David and Solomon. Four hundred and fifty talents of gold have been brought by one fleet . Thrones, beds, and benches were constructed with ivory. "All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia; out of the ivory palaces ¶." "The houses of ivory shall perish **.' Whatever may be meant by palaces and houses, there can be no doubt that a considerable quantity of ivory was consumed.

وؤ

Thus it does not appear that any one of the above places is free from objection, as not being known to have produced either ALL the objects imported by the Jews; nor, several of them, the great quantity of some of the articles enumerated.

The writer will now endeavour to prove that Ophir, or Afer, was no other than Ava; and if that country has always borne the name, which it now does, of Ava tt, and if it has formerly contained, or does still contain, all the articles described as forming the cargoes imported, is it not quite astonishing that that consideration and the name have never led one of the host of critics to the discovery of the undisputed truth? Another remarkable circumstance attending that rich mart

* Rennell's Herodotus, p. 676. Ælian.

§ 2 Chronicles viii. 18.

+ Sonnini's Edit. vol. xlii.

This means the perfume; it is produced in Ava, "the aloexylum verum, much valued for the grateful odour of its smoke."-Rees's Cyc "Birman."

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This word may be otherwise pronounced in that country; as it is spelt also Aungwa.-See Rees's Cyć. “Ava."

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