10 ON SELECTING FLOWER SEEDS. 



and the very severe frost which set it on the 14th instant put a 

 period to them all. This day I dug them up ; the single bull), set in 

 the open border, weighed when set half an ounce ; its produce was 

 10-1 bulbs, seven of which weighed half a pound, and the whole toge- 

 ther two pounds and three quarters, which far exceeded the number 

 and weight of the two set in the cale pot. The result proves they 

 bloom earlier and more profusely when the roots are confined, and 

 that they are most prolific in bulbs when grown in the open ground. 

 Having observed in the Cabinet, vol. vi. p. 202, that they were good 

 to eat, I had some boiled and some roasted, the same as potatoes ; the 

 roasted ones were the best, and some persons may like them ; but, 

 according to my own taste, though they may be introduced as a 

 novelty, they cannot be considered a delicacy. 

 November 21st, 1841. 



ARTICLE V. 



ON SELECTING FLOWER SEEDS. 



BY R. F., ROXBURGHSHIRE. 



Much has been both said and written on the growing of flowers, and 

 what soil they should be grown in, &c. ; but there has been little 

 about collecting the, seed. A few observations upon it I think are 

 required ; and as no other writer in the Cabinet has touched upon 

 it, I venture to forward the following, and commence with the Dahlia. 



When one considers the vast quantity of seedlings raised every 

 year, and comparatively so few good double flowers are produced, if 

 there could be means used by which to curtail the quantity raised in 

 the whole, and yet get as many good flowers, there would be a great 

 saving of trouble as well as expense. I have always been partial to 

 flowers, and am much interested in trying experiments. One that I 

 tried on the English Marigold exceeded my most sanguine expecta- 

 tions. I took a head and planted each row of seed separate from the 

 others, and I found that the plants from seed nearest the centre of the 

 head was the most double. 



I mentioned the circumstance to a nurseryman, and advised him to 

 try the same with the Dahlia seed, which he did the last two years, 

 and the seedlings raised from the seed as collected turned out far 

 better than any he had raised before ; so much so, that when one of 



