garden, it has been thought necessary to go a begging to the government: let that, however, pass; but if the money is got, at all events let us see how it is spent.

I shall not overwhelm you with too much at once; but think you will agree with me that a great deal has been spent in objects which are not quite within the spirit of the meaning of the charter; or, what is of more consequence, the meaning or wishes of the subscribers. I think it certainly never was intended to form in the garden a botanical collection. And is there any occasion for it when we have Kew and the Linnæan Society? As for the introduction of new and beautiful flowers, that is quite consistent with the original foundation; but that a large part of the funds should be applied in sending collectors to all parts of the globe, to Canton, Columbia, the Cape, &c. I think it quite beside what the original founders meant.

There is another very questionable point. I am an original subscriber. Well, it has been determined to establish a garden on a larger scale than the first, and a particular subscription for it was set on foot. This was not done at a General Meeting, I believe; at least I, as a subscriber, was no party to this, as far as I know. To those who subscribe to the gardens there are particular privileges attached; they may have plants on application. They give tickets to view the garden. to their friends; in fact, they are a "privileged class," and I, an old subscriber, am turned into the lower orders, and am no longer a member of the society; and I must either do what my circumstances do not conveniently admit of, or I must remain in my degraded state. It is true, I continue to have the right of going to the garden myself; but when a friend asks me for a ticket, I am obliged to confess I cannot give one. Why not? is the answer; Mr. So and So has as many as he likes. There I am driven up into a corner, and obliged to confess that I am only one of the poor members, and cannot assist him. The same as to the distributions.

In short, the London Horticultural Society has ceased to be conducted on liberal principles for the benefit of horticulture; and its main efforts are directed to its own agrandizement; in some respects to the positive injury of horticulturists, by paralysing the efforts of individuals. Whether this will go on, or whether the energies of some individuals will lead to a general reformation of the system of management, it is im possible to foresee. But this much I think, you and most of the practical gardeners in the neighbourhood of London, who are fellows, will agree in, that a reformation is highly necessary. I am, Sir, &c.

A FELLOW of the Society.

Note by the Conductor. - The author of the foregoing paper will excuse us for having omitted so much of what he had written. We should not have inserted his letter at all, had it been the only one received on the subject; but as there seems among many practical gardeners in the neighbourhood of London a spirit of dissatisfaction with the society, whether well or ill grounded we do not pretend to say, we consider it our duty to attend to it; more particularly as it is practical gardeners who are the chief readers of this Magazine. Discussion on the subject can never do harm, and may do good. We perfectly agree with the writer on the subject of an unpaid secretary; but we question much, if any secretary, however well paid, would have raised the society to the same degree of eminence that has been done by the present one. It is only just, therefore, that he ought to be gratified, in return, with as great a share of power as is consistent with the dignity and safety of the society. To the friends of horticulture, the most interesting point is, the question whether, according to their present plan and proceedings, this society will be able to get income sufficient to go on with for many years. A plan, we think, should have been adopted, which would not have involved so great an annual expence. No society, in our opinion, should interfere with any thing that can be very well or better done by individuals; and on this principle, if that in question were to limit itself to absolute utility, its business would be very simple, and not very expensive. In the first place, there would be no occasion for an extensive garden; for we feel well assured that the only real good to be done by this part of the establishment, is to bring together all the varieties of fruits and culinary vegetables now scattered over the country, and form complete descriptive catalogues of them. A few acres enclosed by a good wall, and a vinery of 150 feet in length, would have been more than sufficient for this purpose. There is not another point in the whole circle of gardening that would not have been much better done by individuals than by this or any society whatever. For example, to procure plants and fruits from abroad — offer handsome premiums for them. To propagate and disseminate them when received — give them to the nurserymen. To ascertain any point by experiment state the desideratum, and the reward you will give for the best account of the result trials will be made by several, and instead of one result you will have a dozen. No experimental discovery of much importance was ever made by any society. The great strength of a country, whether politically or scientifically, is founded on the energies VOL. I. No. 2.

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of the individuals who compose it, and, therefore, any measure which has a tendency to repress individual energy, and induce a reliance on others, is injurious. Of this nature is all monopoly, and we think the horticultural society attempt too much in this way; from the one extreme of sending out botanical collectors to every part of the world, to the other of supplying gentlemen with practical gardeners. We consider the latter point, indeed, as so utterly at variance with the dignity of the society, that we are astonished it should be persisted in. An institution with "His sacred Majesty" as a patron, and emperors and kings as members, to keep an office for servants! And while all this is being attended to, the gardening comforts of the laboring classes is totally neglected. (See Art. I. p. 101.)

But we would not confine a grand, central, horticultural society, like that of London, to bare utility; we would wish it to have a splendid garden as an additional ornament to the metropolis, and a first-rate specimen of the art of gardening. This, once done, could be kept up at such an annual expence as it might reasonably be expected would be raised by the ordinary income of the society; but independently altogether of utility or splendour we think it very questionable if the present system of embracing so many objects both at home and abroad, can be continued for many years longer.

ART. XVI. Abridgments of Communications which want of room precludes our inserting at length.

THE authors of the following papers are requested to excuse the Conductor for the liberty he has taken in presenting their communications in an abridged state. There is not one

of them that would not have done credit to its writer and to the magazine if printed at length; and some of them were actually put in type for that purpose; but want of room and the disadvantages of delay have compelled us to follow this

course.

1. On the Cultivation of Gourds and Pompions. By Mr. HENRY GRAY, Gardener, Camberwell. Dated December 12th, 1825.

MR. GRAY'S employer had lived a good deal in the West Indies, and there acquired a taste for using the different varieties of edible gourds, as a substitute for our common culinary vegetables. Mr. Gray plants in the paths between asparagus beds, and lets the vines run over them; and he

considers that their large leaves do good to the asparagus roots by protecting them from the sun, while the tall stems of the asparagus afford a shelter to the leaves of the gourds. Last summer's extraordinary drought, had burned up, on his gravelly soil, the cabbages, peas, turnips, &c. by the beginning of August, and had he not been provided with gourds as a substitute, the family must have had recourse to market. The servants disliked them at first, but soon came to like them better than summer cabbage. He therefore recommends, especially where the soil is liable to be burnt up in summer, planting the vegetable marrow and other Cucurbitaceæ as a reserve crop.

Note.-To the above we may add, that the tender tops of all the edible species of cucurbitaceae, boiled as greens or spinage, are a fully more delicate vegetable than the fruit. It must be worth something to gardeners and cooks to know that either, or both, may be used for this purpose, when scarcely any thing else can be got.

2. On the Cultivation of the English and American Cranberry and the Water-cress, at Bretton Hall. By Mr. CHRISTIE DUFF, late Gardener there. Dated December 20th,

1825.

THE beds are made across a bank which slopes to the south, and the plants, instead of being shaded, as is generally recommended for those planted in gardens, are fully exposed to the summer's sun. The advantages to the fruit are obvious. The beds are six feet wide with two-feet trenches between them, through which passes a stream of running water. The sloping situation renders it necessary to run a small line of puddle along the lower edges of each bed, as high as the surface of the peat, to prevent the escape of the water. By this, and other obvious arrangements, the water circulates from trench to trench, entering at the top and passing off at the bottom of the declivity. Very sandy peat is used. In winter the water is kept low, but in summer it is raised as high as the surface of the beds, and so as occasionally to flood them. Abundance of water Mr. Duff considers as essentially necessary to the success of this plan.

The cresses, it will be easily conceived, are grown in the trenches among the running water; a little sand being laid along them to promote their rooting. The sub-soil of the whole bank devoted to this mode of culture is a retentive clay.

3. On the Management of newly-imported Orange and Lemon trees. By Mr. WILLIAM MOORE, Gardener at East Ham, Surrey. Dated Jan. 25th.

THE trees, as soon as received, were immersed half way up their stems in water about 64° for twelve hours. They were then potted, their stems wrapped round with soft haybands, from the root to the bud; the shoots from these buds cut down to three eyes; and finally the pots plunged into a bed of nearly spent dung, made up in the vinery. They were regularly watered morning and evening, and the hay-bands well moistened every time; the water used was of 65°, the tempeFature of the house. In ten days they all began to push vigorously; excepting one plant, which was neither steeped in water, nor wrapped round with hay-bands, and which remained a month quite inactive, while the others had produced shoots from four to eight inches long. Heat and proportionate moisture, Mr. Moore concludes, are the grand agents of vegetation.

4. An Account of an Experiment, which serves to show that Hot-house Flues may draw very well without terminating in an upright Shaft or Chimney. By Mr. MATTHIAS SAUL, of Lancaster, Inventor of Saul's Fruit-gatherer (Encyc. of Gard. $1347.) and other Machines. Dated Feb. 7th.

MR. SAUL'S green-house flue always had the worst draught in frosty weather, apparently from some defect in the upright chimney. As an experiment, he made an opening into the flue, and made a wood flue sixteen inches long (fig 30. b). "I found," he says, "the smoke came out with great force and ran along the ground (e), and none came out at the chimney (ƒ). I then supposed my chimney (ƒ) must be too small.

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