383 
CULTIVATION. 
The Zizania presents not the least difficulty in its cultivation 
when once its requirements are known. e most important 
particular is the preservation of the seed during winter. It is 
absolutely essential that it should be hept moist. In a_ state 
of nature the seed falls into the water when ripe and sinks at 
once (or very shortly) to the bottom, there to remain throughout the 
winter and until it germinates the following spring. Kept dry, its 
vitality rapidly decreases. Sir Joseph Banks failed several times 
to introduce the seed alive in a dry state, but at last succeeded 
when some was sent to him from Canada in jars of water. Ninety 
years later, his experiences had passed out of mind, and dry seed 
was again several times sent to Kew from North America, which 
invariably failed to germinate. Finally, a consignment of young 
plants packed in wet moss was received and they grew freely. The 
seed of the plants grown at Kew is now gathered when ripe, at once 
immersed in water and kept there throughout the winter either in a 
Jar, or tied up loosely in canvas. As the seed is heavier than water, 
and sinks naturally, it may be kept in an open vessel. For reasons 
of convenience and safety the seed is usually kept under cover, either 
in the tank of a cool house, where in the ordinary course of wor 
the water is continually being changed, or in an outhouse where the 
water is changed once or twice a week, But a pond or tank out-of- 
doors would do equally well. It does not apparently matter how 
cold the storing place is. It has been found in North America that 
seeds kept through the winter in water frozen into a solid block of 
ice part of the time, germinated quite well. 
Whilst it is undoubtedly the safest method to keep the seed per- 
manently immersed throughout the winter, it can, apparently, be 
kept in air for a week or two without losing its vitality entirely. 
ome seed was imported from Canada May, 1909, which we were 
the time it was collected. It 
second batch was sown. The percentage of ge 
found to have decreased by about two-thirds. A third batch = 
sown two weeks later (or a month after arrival), and not one - 
 Seameomgy Of seed gathered at Kew and stored in water, trom 
0 to 95 per cent. germinate. 
+o is as follows :—About the 
The mode of raising the plants at Rew Er ots of IOaiby #0 ‘1 (ono 
seeds to each pot in case of one failing), the seed peor ea 
covered with soil. The pots are immersed in as wa eo = 
enough to cover them, and pla a cool greenhouse. bY 
“oe of May the plants, a : 
welve inches high and they are then Pp. \ : : 
— soil, at one soe of ¢ e Lily _ - ——- t oa 
ing from 4 to 8 inches below the surtace 0 : 
protecting the slats by wire-netting from anne sp 
very fond of the fresh young leaves) no me met “When lente 
until the ripe seed has once more to be gathered. P 
