THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



47 



"will make good stocks to p;raft or inarch others upon, and when seeds are 

 purchased expressly to raise stocks for working, preference should be given 

 to seeds of the single red, which makes the best stock, and of which the 

 seed is cheapest in the first instance. The seeds should be purchased 

 early in the summer, so as to have it as newly ripened as possible, and 

 it should be sown as soon as received. Fill the sced-paus half full of 

 broken crocks, and fill up with a mixture of peat and leaf-mould equal 

 parts, and one half part of silver-sand. Cover the seeds an inch deep, 

 and pack away the seed-paas in a pit, in a bed of cocoa-nut refuse, which 

 win maintain an equable temperature, and prevent extreme dryness of the 

 seeds, if they happen at any time to be forgotten. All they require is to 

 be kept moderately moist and never wet, and to have no artificial heat 

 whatever. They require two years to germinate, and rarely blossom in 

 less than four years, generally in five ; and the best way to get an early 

 bloom is to let them grow as they please, aad never to stop or cut them. 

 Some good varieties may be expected even when seeds of single camellias 

 only are sown, and as when five years old they are still good stocks, there 

 can be no harm in allowing all the seedlings to bloom before working any. 

 As it is not difficult to ripen a few pods of seed in this country when the 

 plants are only slightly forced, the cultivator should aim at a distinct 

 effect by hybridizing ; and there is no subject easier to operate upon than 

 the camellia. Choose the varieties to be crossed, so as to have the best 

 -possible form in the flower which is to give the seed, and the best possible 

 colour in that which is to furnish the pollen. As soon as the mother 

 flower opens, cut away Avith a pair of scissors the stamens before the 

 anthers burst ; and when the stigma begins to show a glistening appear- 

 ance, dust the pollen of the pollen-flower upon it. The safest plan is to 

 dust as soon as pollen can be got, whether the stigma appears to be perfect 

 or not, and to dust again several times. Among the many dustings one 

 may take effect, and a pod of really valuable seed may bo secured. 



Inarchixg. — This is the sim- 

 plest method of propagation, and 

 requires the least amount of prac- 

 tice to insure success. This may 

 be performed during summer or 

 autumn, after the wood is ripe, or 

 early in spring before the plants 

 begin to grow. We prefer the 

 spring, because there is then a 

 long season of natural heat to 

 perfect the union, and the scions 

 may be sooner cut from the parent 

 plants. 



Place side by side the two 

 plants that are to be operated on, 

 namely, the stock and the double 

 variety from which the scion is to 

 be taken. The stock is not to be 

 headed until after the graft has 

 grown, and both stock and scion . "~~ 



should be in a state of vigorous health. Select on the named variety a 

 branch that may be easily drawn aside and bound to the stock, and 



