the ground, and are apt to have worms and slugs gathered with them. We have even had small red worms come out of cabbages and lettuce, besides green fly, and caterpillars. After the vegetables remain three or four minutes in the salt water cistern, whatever has been in them comes out, and is seen writhing and dying in the water, just as worms come out of the ground and die on the surface after a watering with lime water. The vegetables are then taken out and washed with fine fresh water in the usual way.

I think this is a thing that will be considered worth knowing by the readers of the Gardener's Magazine, as salt is now so cheap, it will cost very little, as the same water will last for weeks, the worms, &c. being strained out of it.

Musselburgh, Nov. 20th, 1825.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

JAMES SIMSON.

ART. VIII. On the Cultivation of Hothouse bulbous-rooted Plants. By Mr. ROBERT SWEET, F.L.S. Author of the Botanical Cultivator, Cistineæ, and other works.

Or all the genera of hothouse bulbs, that are cultivated in our gardens, none can vie with the beautiful genus AMARYLLIS, of which there are now numerous species, and also a great number of hybrid or mule productions in our collections, some or other of which are producing their splendid flowers all the year through. The mule plants are in general more hardy, and flower more readily than the original species, which makes them very desirable. In the nursery of Mr. Colvill, a great quantity of hybrid productions have been raised from seeds, and several hundreds of them were in flower all through last winter and spring, which was occasioned by the following method:- they had been grown in frames and pits all the summer; and in autumn, when it became time to remove them to the hothouse, they were taken out of the pots, and the mould was all shook clean from their roots; they were then laid on shelves in the house, and as the leaves and roots began to decay, they were cleared away, that they might not injure the bulbs. As soon as the bulbs became dry and hard, some of them began to show flower, and others continued to do so all the winter and spring, seldom being less than a hundred, sometimes two or three hundred in flower together, when scarcely any other plant was in bloom. As soon as they show for bloom they should be potted, and the sooner the better, as they draw up weak, and do not flower so well, if

allowed to remain too long after showing bloom; as soon as potted they must be placed in the hothouse, giving them but little water at first, but as the pots get filled with roots they will require a greater supply. The sorts that succeed best in turning out are A. regina, Johnsoni, crocata, acuminata, rutila, fulgida, psittacina, and vittata, and all the hybrids that have been produced from them. A. aulica, calyptrata, solandræflora, and reticulata, do not like turning out so well, as it is their nature to continue growing all the year through, and the hybrid productions from those partake of the nature of their parents. They only require to be kept dry a considerable time in their pots to make them flower, except any get sickly, or the mould gets sodden in their pots; they should then be laid by to dry for a considerable time, or they will be apt to rot. By laying the bulbs to dry in this way, a far greater number may be grown than could by any other means, as by their being laid to dry on shelves, other plants can be grown in the space that they would occupy if kept in pots. A. reticulata and striatifolia succeed best in light turfy loam, mixed with sand; all the other sorts we find grow more freely in about one half light turfy loam, rather more than a third of white sand, and the rest turfy peat; the use of the turfy soil is to keep it from binding or getting hard in the pots, which it will do if sifted fine; the fibres in the turfy soil also keep it open, that the roots may pass readily through it; the pots must also be well drained with potsherds, that the moisture may pass off readily, as nothing injures bulbs so much as to be sodden in the pots; the roots are also very fond of running amongst the small potsherds. It is a very bad plan that is generally adopted of placing piece of flat tile or potsherd over the hole at the bottom of the pot, for by that means, by continual watering, the hole gets as firmly closed as if corked up, and the water remains in the pot, soddening and souring the mould, and very often occasions the plant to rot. The better way is to lay a hollow piece of potsherd about halfway over the hole, then to lay another piece or two against it, and to fill up all round with a handful or two of potsherds broken small, according to the size of the po.

Seeds of this genus, as well as most other bulbs, should be sown as soon as ripe, and when the young plants are a few inches high, they must be potted off, either singly or several in one pot; if a hotbed frame be ready to receive them, all the better, as they will grow much faster in frames than in the house; as soon as their pots are filled with roots, shift them into larger ones, giving them three or four shifts in the

course of the summer; they will then grow rapidly, and many will flower at twelve months old, particularly any mules from A. reticulata or striatifolia.

As the different species of CRINUM and PANCRATIUM continue growing at all seasons of the year, they will succeed better to be kept in pots continually, only shifting them occasionally into larger ones, as the others become filled with roots, for the more room the roots have to run, the finer the flowers will be; and Crinum amabile, if grown in a large pot or tub, will produce its magnificent and fragrant flowers four times every year. They will all require occasionally to have the mould all shook from the roots, and the suckers taken off, or otherwise they will become unmanageable. As they are of stronger and more vigorous growth than Amaryllis, they will require rather a stronger soil; some good rich loam, mixed with nearly a third of sand, and a little peat to keep it open, is the best soil for the different species, also being careful to have the pots well drained with potsherds; and if any bulb ⚫ should chance to be getting rotten, or have lost its roots, it must be dried in the way recommended for Amaryllis. Any young plants that are wanted to grow fast, should also be placed in a hotbed frame or pit in summer, and as soon as one pot is filled with roots, it should be shifted into a larger one; by that means they will soon become flowering plants.

HEMANTHUS multiflorus is a tender stove bulb, which requires a great heat, and particular care to grow and flower it well; the same soil as recommended for Amaryllis is suitable to it, and bulbs that are fresh imported should be potted and placed in a hotbed frame, but they will require very little water until they have made fresh roots; they will then need a frequent supply, but they will always require a warm situation in the hothouse, and care must be taken not to water them over the leaves, as it very frequently gets into their hearts and rots them; one reason, we believe, of their generally surviving so short a time in most collections, which is the more to be regretted, as they are splendid flowering plants.

ART. IX. Historical Notice of the Present de Malines Pear. By JOHN BRADDICK, Esq., F.H.S., of Boughton Mount, Kent.

Dear Sir,

It was not till this day that your Prospectus of the Gardener's Magazine reached me. I am happy to find that such a work is undertaken by you, in whose hands I am sure that

it will be ably conducted. For the information of our horticultural brethren, to be inserted in your new Magazine, I berewith send you an account of a new pear, with four specimens of the fruit, which I beg that you will taste and report upo.. as your judgement shall direct. The history of this pear is as follows: -The late Count Coloma, of Malines, amused himself in raising new varieties of the pear, by imimpregnating the blossom, &c.; the idea of so doing first struck him near fifty years ago, as he informed me, on his reading the works of the English author, Bradley. During five years that I annually visited the continent, for the purpose of collecting buds of new fruits, I used every year to receive buds from the count's garden; several of those had fruited, and were named by him; many others, although considered as children of promise, had not fruited, and were, in consequence, without names; amongst the latter was a cutting, containing buds of the pear now sent to you; one of these buds I inserted into the bearing branch of a pear tree growing against a N. W. wall in my garden, at my late residence in Surrey, which bud produced fruit in two years after its insertion. This fruit was exhibited at a meeting of the Horticultural Society, and was pronounced by those gentlemen to be good. I wrote to Mr. Louis Stoffels, corresponding member of the Horticultural Society in the city of Malines, describing the pear, and requesting him to trace out the name of it in reply to my letter, Mr. Stoffells stated that the Count Coloma's garden was sold, and his collection of fruit trees dispersed, so that no further information could be gained of the pear in that quarter. To this he added, that it was the wish of the Count's friends that the pear in question should be called Present de Malines, by which name it is mentioned in the Horticultural Society's transactions, and under this name I gave buds of it to Mr. Young, nurseryman of Epsom, and some others. Upon removing my collection of fruit trees last year from Thames Ditton, in Surrey, to this place, I brought with me a young standard tree of the Present de Malines, and planted it, together with the Seckle, Urbaniste, Poire d'Ananas, Passe Colmar, Napoleon, Marie Louise, Beurré, and many other new fruits, in an exposed situation, on part of Coxheath. This I did for the purpose of trying if those superior fruits would ripen on standard trees in the climate of England: all the trees appear to like the soil and situation, and the Present de Malines bore seven fruit this year, four of which I now send to you, and suggest, if you should find the fruit, upon tasting, to be of a quality that will warrant the measure, that you recommend this tree as a standard to be planted in the southern parts of England and Ireland as an

espalier in the midland parts of those countries; and against a wall in Scotland, and the remaining part of the other two countries. To this, I think, that you may safely add, that this fruit will prove a valuable acquisition to our national stock of pears. The tree is clean, healthy, and vigorous in growth, falls early into fruit, and promises to bear abundantly.

Boughton Mount,

30th Nov. 1825.

Respectfully I am,

Dear Sir,

Your most obedient servant,
JOHN BRADDICK.

Note.-We received the fruit, which have a good deal of the Bonchrétien shape, large at one end, smooth, and every where of a beautiful yellow colour: one specimen (fig. 5.) we tasted

5

ourselves, and the others we sent to three eminent fruiterers. It

is agreed that they are of of a rich musky flavour.

most excellent quality, melting, and Mr. Grange, one of our first fruit