804 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Some few growers, who have been especially successful in the culti- 

 vation of any particular class of plants, are very apt, in giving 

 directions for the cultivation of their favourites, to state part of the 

 essentials only, and shroud the other part in mystery, or else v?-ith- 

 hold information altogether, for fear of being beaten. But I shall 

 not allow any such narrow-minded ideas to influence me, and shall 

 state all T know upon the subject, and then it will be entirely the 

 reader's own fault if he does not grow tbein as well as myself — that 

 is, if he has space to grow them. The reader must not be disap- 

 pointed if everything does not happen to turn out exactly as he would 

 wish, or the plants not attain the same proportions as mine, the first 

 time of his taking them in hand. It must be borne in mind that I 

 have had many years' practice with them, and I have closely studied 

 through that time to improve them in every possible way. How 

 far I have been successful in my endeavours in this respect the 

 various prizes which I have won, and the favourable notices of them 

 which have appeared in these pages, speak for themselves. It is not 

 my intention to enter into this part of the subject farther than to 

 show that to attain a high degree of success in the cultivation of any 

 plant, or in any other affairs, a certain amount of labour must be 

 undergone, and a certain degree of attention and observation brought 

 to bear upon the subject ; and successful results are not so much due 

 to knowing a vast deal, and doing little, as to knowing little, and 

 doing that thoroughly vphich is known. 



RAISINa THE PLA-NTS THOM SEED. 



As I tave already observed, the calceolaria is easily grown ; and 

 to begin with the cultural treatment, I will commence with raising 

 young plants from seed, as this is the principal way which I adopt 

 for increasing my stock, and is also adopted by most of our other 

 good growers ; and I find that I can always depend upon getting 

 flowers of first-rate quality, and with not more than three or four 

 inferior ones in a batch of several hundreds, so faithfully do they re- 

 produce themselves from seed when saved from good parents ; and I 

 think it scarcely necessary for me to say that seed from bad flowers 

 will produce young plants of inferior quality, and, of course, if 

 growers prefer sowing indifferent seed, or, more "properly speaking, 

 seed saved from indifferent flowers, they must take the consequences. 

 I make a practice of sowing my seed directly it is ripe, or as soon 

 after as practicable ; but if I were to fix a time, I should say the 

 middle of July is the best, and the seed will be ripe, generally speaking, 

 by that time. Not but what nice plants can be had from seed sown 

 later, but it' both sowings receive the same treatment, the first will 

 produce the best plants, and they will flower better the following 

 season. They have more time to grow, and the stronger the plants 

 are, the larger may the heads of bloom be expected. Therefore, 

 fixing upon the 15fch of July as a starting-point, I will frame my 

 directions accordingly ; but it will not make any difference if the 

 seed is sown a few days later. My seed is sown in ordinary seed- 

 pans, which are prepared by placing a thorough good drainage of 

 broken crocks in the bottom, and a layer of the rougher portion of 



