MISCELLANY OF NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 69 



may be allowed to remain for two years, keeping them free from weeds ; they 

 should then he transplanted into lines, and tieated in every respect the same as 

 the common Larch tree. The system of keeping them in houses is just as absurd as 

 growing the common Scotch Pine in heat, or any other plant which is equally hardy. 

 According to all accounts, the wood of this tree is very durable and easily 

 worked; but as it claims attention at present chiefly as a landscape ornament, 

 planters would do well to take, advantage of this graceful object, and grow it 

 around their residences and on the bolder parts of their parks. The soil it 

 delights in most is a sandy loam, and the situation a northern exposure. Under 

 those circumstances it is already rearing its beautiful form on several hills 

 throughout the north of Scotland. 



On the Management of Imported Seeds. — Upon the arrival of a box of 

 seeds, my mode of proceeding is this: — supposing them to arrive in the begin- 

 ning or middle of summer, the ditferent sorts should be sown in the soil best 

 suited to the plants to be grown, although perhaps a light loam, with a mixture of 

 leaf-mould, will answer for most of them while in the seed-pan. The seed should 

 then be sown of the proper depth, which will in most instances be regulated by 

 the size of the seeds, the larger nuts being sown one or two inches deep, while 

 the smaller ones should be sown on the top of the mould, and then a mere 

 sprinkling of mould be added, and afterwards a small sprinkling of white sand 

 be put on the top. The object of this addition is to prevent the plants, on their 

 first appearance, damping off, which all tender plants, but especially herbaceous 

 ones, are apt to do. If the season be far advanced (for instance, the autumn), 

 there is little inducement for pushing forward the germiuation or growth of the 

 seeds, and the pans may be placed on the stage of the greenhouse for the winter. 

 My great object in sowing them at what may be considered an unfavourable 

 season is more with a view to prevent the loss of vitality, by keeping them iu an 

 intermediate state of dampness and dryness, than by keeping them in their 

 packages all the winter. 



If, however, it be either in spring or the earlier part of summer, or indeed not 

 very late in the season, I put the seed-pans in a hotbed or other place where they 

 may get bottom heat ; and I conceive that an error takes place in this respect, 

 by supposing that much bottom heat wdl injure the heads. This I do not think 

 is the case ; many seeds require a very considerable bottom heat to make them 

 germinate, especially if they are weakly, and perhaps imperfectly ripened ; the 

 chief danger will be after the plants begin to make their appearance. While in 

 this state too much heat will of course destroy the plants ; they must be kept 

 tolerably damp if in heat ; and the heat, if very great, must be moderated by 

 raising the glasses and shading the plants, which will be treated much in the 

 way that our common flower seeds are treated ; that is, they must be gradually 

 hardened, and shifted into separate pots, the size of which will be regulated by 

 the kind and size of the future plant, and which cannot be entered into minutely. 

 The soil in the new pots may be made more to resemble that which they will 

 probably require when they are laiger plants. In general, with herbaceous 

 plants, which are mure likely to damp oft, a little white or common sand will be 

 placed at top to absorb the superfluous moisture, and the pots should be placed 

 in a drier situation than is necessary with woody plants. The plants may very 

 soon be placed in the temperature best suited for them, according to their native 

 climate, either in the stove, the conservatory, or greenhouse, or the open air; 

 observing, in general, that any change of temperature must not be made too 

 suddenly; but, as the gardeners say, the plants must be hardened or prepared 

 for it. When the plant is intended for the stove, or conservatory, or greenhouse, 

 but little preparation will be found necessary ; but when it is to go to the open 

 border it can be prepared by being removed to a cool frame, as it is called; that 

 is, a frame where there is no artificial heat produced by dung or file, and the 

 glasses will be removed or raised in favourable weather. In summer the pots 

 may be very soon placed out, rather in a shady place ; and in the course of every 

 ten days they may be fully exposed; observing, however, that they must be 

 watered occasionally in the evenings, when the weather is dry.— .4 Practical 

 Plant (irower. 



