CUAPTEE ON SEEDS. 



cHlToronce ?" Simply that B never allows his seeds to get hard. lie places them in 

 tlio c:ro\ind to keep tli<*ir shells soft ; or, to the same end, he gathers them, not before 

 tla-ir embryos are fully formed, but before their coats have become indurated, and 

 adds to his precaution by keeping them cool till sown. This is a simple experiment, 

 which any one may test for himself. 



In successfully raising seed, there is more in this gathering of them before they are 

 what is popularly called quite ripe, than one is at first disposed to admit. I was 

 many years ago struck by this through accident. On a visit to a friend, he pointed 

 out what he then considered extremely rare, a most beautiful double orange African 

 Marigold. My friend wished to keep it to himself, — he would give no seed, but be 

 presented me witlf a flower. When this flower had faded, and was cast aside, seeing 

 the seed looked black and good, I saved them, and at the next spring's sowing I 

 sowed them at the same time with the yellow, which we had. They appeared several 

 days before the others. Simple as this was, it led me to ponder on what we gardeners 

 had always held inexplicable, namely, that on sowing Ilawthorn seeds some should 

 come up in one year, while, of the same sowing, some should not appear till the 

 second or third year; and I have since been led to the conclusion, by many similar 

 observations and experiments, that those which came up first were "greener" when 

 gathered than those which took a longer period. 



At the risk of being a little "dreadful" in long narrations, I will detail a few obser- 

 vations on the Victoria seed, which bears well on the present subject. The seeds 

 received from England by Mr. Cope, through Mr. Downing and Sir W. J. IIooKEri, 

 readily germinated. Those which ripened at Springbrook in September and October 

 the fall following, also readily grew any time through the winter, on being sown for a 

 few weeks. Our plant was flowering all that winter and spring, and in the summer I 

 set myself to collect a good quantity of well-ripened seeds, but they were too fast for 

 me, bursting and sowing themselves. Subsequently I cut one off before it was ripe, 

 or at least before it burst open. These were put in an old wine bottle, and many of 

 those self-sown were raked up with a net and placed in another bottle, which chanced 

 to be a white-colored one. They were all placed in the same place. Those in the 

 black bottle grew in a few weeks, in the bottle. Looking alone at the known influ- 

 ence of the absence of light in assisting germination, I took that to be the cauKe ; but 

 last year the circumstances were repeated in every respect except that the bottles were 

 reversed, and with the same result except that the seeds which grew this time were in 

 the light-colored bottle. This seems confirmatory of what I have advanced in favor 

 of seeds not seemingly ripe; but the Victoria still further "confirms this confirma- 

 tion." The well-ripened seeds, by Mr. Cope's liberality, were distributed over the 

 whole Union ; but, with one instance, I believe, excepted, failed to grow. Even in 

 our own tank I could never succeed in raising one of these so-ripened seeds, except in 

 February, March, or April, after they had lain a very long time in pans ; and those 

 which were self-sown in summer, never appeared any season till the following spring, 

 they would all appear simultaneously. Last year, warned by these observations 



sowed all the seed in the latter part of the season, and before they were quite 



