PROPAGATION 127 



more likely to thrive than would be the case 

 if propagated by any of the other methods. 

 Seed also provides the only means of raising a 

 new variety and of improving a freshly im- 

 ported strain. But, on the other hand, unless 

 artificially fertilised, the results from seeds are 

 often disappointing, for, in place of being an 

 improvement, they frequently turn out to be 

 only very inferior copies of the parent plant. 

 This is due to cross-fertilisation, especially 

 noticeable in the case of Aubrietias, Aquilegias, 

 and many of the Saxifraga family. Neverthe- 

 less, many species do come quite true, a great 

 deal, of course, depending on whether there 

 are varieties of the same species grown suffi- 

 ciently close for bees to carry their pollen from 

 one to the other. Another disadvantage in 

 raising plants from seed is that they often take 

 two or even three years before they flower ; 

 indeed, the seeds of some kinds take as long as 

 eighteen months, or even more, to germinate 

 at all. During this time the seed-pans need 

 to be carefully looked after and kept free from 

 weeds and that arch-enemy, Marchantia ; to 

 say nothing of the trouble and difficulty of 



