ALBERT AND GABRIELLE HOWARD. 13 



and we have found it best to thin out the main intiorescence 

 very considerably by cutting oft' the very young buds as well as 

 the opened ftowers and capsules before the bao- is placed in 

 position. In this way, only buds which w^ould naturally open 

 during the next two days are bagged, and self-pollination rapidly 

 takes place. Bagging should not be left too late in the season 

 as the later flowers on the main inflorescence and most of those 

 on side shoots do not set seed readily. All suckers and side 

 flowering branches are removed at the time of bagoino- and the 

 whole energy of the plant is utilised in the production of selfed 

 seeds. The bags are removed as soon as all the corollas have 

 faded, and the capsules are allowed to ripen in the air. The baos 

 should on no account be left on too long as this leads to the 

 falling of the capsules. These are counted at the time the bao- 

 is removed and indicated by a label which is tied on the stem 

 just below the lowest bagged capsule. Any flower buds which 

 arise above this point, as W'cll as any others on the rest of the 

 plant, are carefully removed from time to time. Unless this is 

 done wath great care, the new^ buds grow rapidly and set seed 

 The capsules may either be collected as the}^ ripen or else the 

 bag can be replaced when they begin to turn brown. The ripe 

 capsules of this species do not drop oft' so easily as is the case in 

 some of the races of N. tahacmn, and this second baoo-ino- is 

 therefore not so necessary. 



While the above procedure gives satisfactory results in most 

 of the Indian types of this species, it is not successful in the lono-- 

 styled forms. Practically no seed is obtained under bao- with 

 these forms. In such cases the method has to be modified. 

 The unopened buds are bagged and the fully-opened flowers 

 are artificially selfed and the bag replaced. In this way only 

 can good setting be obtained. 



The seeds are thorouglily dried in the sun in bags and 

 stored either in bottles or preferably in air-tight cases with a 

 little calcium chloride during the monsoon. They retain their 

 germinating power for several years. 



