FEBRUARY. 3 1 



to include in my observations other seeds than such as are sown in 

 pots, pans, or frames, and subject to artificial treatment. Of course, 

 in the latter, mismanagement will be the more evident. The case of 

 the gentleman I have just cited will, I think, form an excellent text 

 for an observation or two, addressed to such as may have felt them- 

 selves in similar situations. 



There are several causes which will induce total failure in the 

 growth of seeds, however excellent they may be. To some of the more 

 prominent of these I shall briefly allude. Burying them too deeply 

 in a finely prepared earth, allowing them to become dry after vege- 

 tation has commenced, and sowing in a rich earth, are perhaps the 

 more common forms of the causes which lead to failure ; and I might 

 add sowing too thickly, which is pretty sure to induce damping-ofF 

 as soon as the young plants have begun to grow. Small seeds are 

 very often, especially in the hands of ladies and young amateurs, 

 buried at too great a depth : shut out from the proper action of the 

 atmosphere, vegetation is called into action so tardily, that the 

 means supplied to favour that process induce decay, where they 

 should have assisted vitality. Employing a very finely divided earth, 

 too, is a powerful auxiliary to this kind of failure. Space will not 

 allow me to enter into the scientific bearing of this part of the 

 inquiry as respects the physiology of the seed, and its relation to the 

 causes which produce vegetation, or some interesting details might 

 be adduced. The second cause of failure named, that of allowing 

 seeds to suffer from drought, after once having commenced growing, 

 is a very prevalent one. Attention is withheld at the very crisis 

 of success. Perhaps vegetation has progressed so slowly, as to 

 induce the belief that the seeds were dead, or, through forgetfulness 

 or neglect, moisture was denied when most needed, and the results 

 were total failures. Perhaps the most common cause of disappoint- 

 ment is, however, sowing in too rich a soil. Seeds with fleshy coty- 

 ledons especially suffer if consigned to a bed of half-decaying vegetable 

 matter, as is often employed. In such cases the seeds are " killed 

 ■with kindness." Too poor a medium cannot be employed in which 

 to vegetate seeds ; their subsequent progress I have nothing to do with 

 at present. In this part of my essay, many interesting points for 

 discussion present themselves ; but as it would swell the present 

 remarks to too great a length to allude to them now, I shall reserve 

 them for a future Florist. 



Sowing too thickly causes many disappointments in seed-raising, 

 not perhaps by preventing vegetation, but by causing the young 

 plants to damp-oft' afterwards. As a general rule, seedlings should 

 be " pricked off" as soon as they are large enough to handle ; and if 

 any are permitted to remain in the seed-pan, they should be left at 

 good distances from each other, sufficiently so to afford each the 

 benefit of light and air to induce robustness of constitution. For 

 it is well to bear in mind, that much of the future success of a plant, 

 as of an animal, is due to the treatment it receives in its youth. 



G. L. 



