48 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



always keeping them under glass, and with little air, and in the 

 fullest sunshine. By this course of treatment, the greater part wiL 

 flower in July, August, and September. We expect them to begin 

 flowering at 100 days from the date of sowing, if we sow in February 

 and start tbem in a good heat. As they come into flower, be cou- 

 rageous enough to destroy instantly all that are of merely average 

 merit, and keep only such as promise well in form, colour, habit, 

 or some distinctive property. 



Perhaps you cannot put the seed-pans in a good heat. Never 

 mind. Tou can do nearly as well, but you cannot make sure of 

 flowering many the first season. Do not sow the seed until the 

 middle of March, then place the pans on a warm top shelf, or in a 

 frame facing the sun, or anywhere else that may be convenient, but 

 it must be a warm place, and easy to get at, because you must take 

 eare the soil in the pans is never wet, and never dust dry. Grow 

 the plants on in the hottest place you have, and do not give one of 

 them a larger pot than a 60 (3^-ineh), for the quality of the 

 flower can always be approximately determined in that size, and a 

 larger pot defers needlessly the first appearance of the flowers. 

 Push as many into bloom before winter as possible, that you may 

 destroy the bad ones and keep the good ones ; otherwise, if none 

 flower, you must keep all — a very serious matter. With all our 

 experience, and, we must add, convenience also, we never did flower 

 the whole of a large batch in one season, but we have come so near 

 it as to flower seven-tenths, when the seed was sown in January. 

 Now, as only about one plant amongst every hundred seedlings is 

 worth keepiug, even for further trial, it is obviously of great import- 

 ance to obtain some idea of what we have got before winter comes, 

 for of course we must not destroy one until we have seen its flowers. 



Now about breeding. Like produces like, here as elsewhere 

 throughout the world of organic existence. You may obtain new and 

 beautiful varieties by merely saving seed of the best, but your chances 

 are increased by the practice of artificial fertilization. The first 

 step towards success is to sweep out of the garden — not by giving 

 them to a neighbour, but by sheer destruction — all the inferior varie- 

 ties, of whatever class. Here, you see, it is requisite to be some- 

 what of a judge as to what is good and what is bad. Compare 

 Eichard Headly with Tom Thumb, and you will instantly know as 

 much about them as to their respective merits as if you had read 

 half a dozen books. But you cannot perhaps compare them now, 

 so, with your kind permission, we will postpone the comparison and 

 the whole of the subject until next month, and then take it up at 

 the point at which we now drop it, because we have said as much 

 as can be required by the amateur to furnish practice for the 

 present season. S. H. 



