than can be derived from any other plan; the trellis which is placed over the flues is nearly equal to the whole roof, without being in any degree injurious to the plants trained upon the back wall. The vines are planted in the inside of the house, but in such a manner that the mould in which they grow is not heated by the fire-places of either flue. The usual mode of exposing the main stem of a forced vine to an extremely low temperature in the external air, while the branches are stimulated by a very high temperature in an entirely different atmosphere, is very properly objected to. Nothing, in fact, can be more injudicious than such a practice, in cases where very early forcing is required; for it should be borne in mind, that although the absorption of the elements by which the proper juices of a [p161] plant are elaborated, and brought into the state under which they appear in the fruit, and in the secretions of the plant, is carried on by the leaves alone, yet that all these juices have, in the first instance, to pass along the vessels of the stem before they reach the leaves; and that the whole of the bark of a tree is, rightly considered, a leaf of a particular description, formed of the same kind of tissue, and exercising the same functions, and undoubtedly producing a powerful effect upon the motion of the fluids of the branches, with the vessels of which it is elaborately and intimately entangled, from the core to the circumference. No argument can be necessary to show that an equal action of the vessels of a plant is indispensable to the due maintenance of the vegetable functions in a healthy state, and that this is not to be maintained by exposing the main stem and the extremities to an atmosphere and temperature entirely different. Such irregularities do not exist in free Nature, and she will not submit to them when in fetters. In pruning vines for early forcing, as little wood should be employed as possible. Mr. Acon stops the shoots one joint above each cluster, and has no joint without a bunch. When the crop is over, and the wood perfectly matured, the branches should be laid near the ground, and shaded till the recommencement of forcing. In short, they should be placed in a condition as nearly as possible resembling the gloom and cold of winter. If this process be well managed, the vines will alter their natural habits, and instead of budding with the spring, their vegetation will naturally commence at the period at which they have been accustomed to be stimulated.