Mill. Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 2.

Crocus autumnalis.
Habitat in Portugal, locis rupestribus haud procul a mari.
Floret Novembri.

Obs. MILLER enumerates three varieties of this very dis-
tinct, and very late-flowering species; only one of which
(the paler blue-flowered) is known to me; its leaves are
far shorter than those of any other Crocus: and very much
lower than the flowers, at the time of flowering; which
lasts until late in December.

13. Crocus (The true Saffron) stigmatibus longissimis pen- Officinalis. dulis.

Crocus sativus, Spatha univalvi radicali, corollæ tubo longis

simo. Mill. Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 1.

Crocus officinalis. Mart. Fl. Rust. tab. 58.

Crocus autumnalis. Eng. Bot. tab. 343.

Habitat in Anglia, culta sub dio.

Floret Octobri, Novembri.

Obs. 1. Folia longissima, angustissima, effusa.
Nunquam variat.

Obs. 2. For the mode of cultivating this valuable plant for
medicinal purposes, see MILLER'S Dictionary, and other
works.

References to the Plate of Crocus Stellaris.

1. Two flowers not yet expanded, shewing the insertion of the peduncles in the young root. 2. 3. The bractes at the bottom of the peduncles magnified. 4. Two views of a stamen before it bursts, magnified. 5. Two views of the root cleared of its old coats in the beginning of September, before it has pushed out any fibres. 6. The two outer coats of the root, in which it differs from every other species. 7. Young fruit magnified. 8. Stigmata magnified. 9. Pistillum. 10. Transverse section of the seed leaf of Crocus Lagenæflorus magnified. 11. A seedling plant of Crocus Lagenæflorus, natural size.

XXIII. On the Horticultural Management of the Sweet or

N

Spanish Chestnut Tree. By the Right Hon. Sir JOSEPH

BANKS, Bart. K. B. P. R. S. &c.

Read February 7, 1809.

In all the northern parts of Europe, where Chestnuts are used for food, the practice of grafting the trees that bear them has been known from time immemorial; the wild or ungrafted Chestnut is called in French Châtaignier, the grafted or cultivated sort, Maronnier.

Though the grafting of Chestnuts has been little, if at all used in this part of the island, it is not an uncommon practice in Devonshire, and other western counties. The nurserymen there deal in grafted Chestnut trees, and the gentlemen have no doubt introduced them into their gardens.

About sixteen years ago, Sir WILLIAM WATSON sent some of these grafted trees from Devonshire to Spring Grove, with an assurance that the fruit would be plentiful and good. They were at first neglected, and ill-treated, owing to the disinclination most gardeners have to the introduction of novelties, the management of which they are unacquainted with it was therefore six or seven years before they began to bear fruit.

Since that time, as the trees have increased in size, the crop has every year become more abundant; last autumn

On the Management of the Spanish Chestnut Tree. 141

the produce, though they are only six in number, was sufficient to afford the family a daily supply from the beginning of November till after Christmas. The nuts are much smaller than the Spanish imported fruit, but they are beyond comparison sweeter to the taste. The crops are little subject to injury, except from very late frosts. The trees are in general covered with blossoms to a degree that retards their annual increase. They are now so low, that a part of the crop is gathered from the ground, and the remainder by a stepladder. They require no care or attendance on the part of the gardener, except only the labour of gathering the fruit. Most people prefer the taste of the fruit to that of the imported, but there can be no doubt that when the usage of grafting Chestnuts becomes common in this country, grafts of all other sorts will in due time be procured from the continent.

The kernels of these Chestnuts, and of all others ripened in England, are more liable to shrivel and dry up than those imported, owing to a deficiency of summer heat in our climate to mature the fruit; this must be guarded against by keeping the nuts always in a cool place, rather damp than dry; the vessel best suited to preserve them is an earthenware jar with a cover; this will not only keep them cool, but it will restrain the loss of moisture without entirely preventing perspiration, and thus endangering the loss of vitality, the immediate consequence of which is the appearance of must and mouldiness.

XXIV. On the proper Construction of Hot-bed Frames. By THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, Esq. F. R. S. &c.

Read March 7, 1899.

THE most ignorant gardener would feel himself offended, were his skill in making a Hot-bed, or giving proper directions for the form of a forcing frame, called in question; and this, perhaps, is the principal reason why the structure and frames of all Hot-beds are so perfectly alike. The surface of the bed is made perfectly horizontal, and to give some degree of elevation to the glass, that end of the frame, which is to stand towards the north, is made nearly as deep again as the other; so that if the mould were placed of the same depth (as it ought to be), over the whole bed, the plant would be too far from the glass at one end of the frame, and would want space at the other. To remove this inconvenience, I tried several years ago, the effect of placing the Hot-bed on an inclined plane of earth, elevated about 15 degrees, making the surface of the dung and mould parallel with it, and adapting the form of the frame to the surface of the bed as represented in the annexed sketch; by which means the plants and the mould of the bed became more exposed to the influence of the sun. And as I have not discovered any disadvantages in the plan I have adopted, I have thought a description of it worth sending to the Horticultural Society for though the improvement be trivial, it is not attended with