ON RAISING RANUNCULUSES FROM SEED. 175 



midity may be exhaled from it, in -which state it should be put into a 

 bag, and preserved in a dry warm room till the time of sowing, otherwise 

 it will be in danger of contracting a dampness, which will soon pro- 

 duce a mouldiness that will infallibly destroy it. January is the pro- 

 per time to sow the seed ; and in order to prepare it, it must be sepa- 

 rated from the stalks to which it is connected in the following manner, 

 viz. : in the first place it should be taken out of the bag and spread 

 thin upon paper, tea tray, &c, and placed before a moderate fire, till 

 it is just warm, and no more ; the seed will then easily scrape off, by 

 means of a penknife ; but great care must be taken to avoid scraping 

 it off in lumps, or suffering any pieces of the- stalk, dried petals of 

 the flower, or other extraneous matter to be mixed with it, which 

 would create a mouldiness, when sown, of very destructive consequence ; 

 when the seed is scraped in a proper manner it will have the appear- 

 ance of clean coarse bran, with a little brown or purple speck in the 

 centre of each cuticle, which is the kernel. 



When the seed is thus prepared, it should be sown on a shallow 

 frame provided with glasses, similar to those made use of for cucum- 

 bers and melons ; the soil should have been previously taken out, 

 three feet deep, and spread thin upon the ground till it has been per- 

 fectly frozen throughout, in order to destroy any vermin it may have 

 contained. When the pit is filled up again with the frozen lumps of 

 earth, it should remain till the whole mass has thawed and subsided 

 to its pristine bulk, or nearly so ; its surface should then be made 

 perfectly smooth and even, and the seed sown upon it with the utmost 

 regularity, in such a quantity as nearly to cover it ; the glasses should 

 be placed over it immediately, and the frame kept closely covered 

 with them, for two or three days, till the seed begins to swell and 

 soften ; a little light earth should then be sifted upon it, through a fine 

 sieve, but not sufficient to cover it ; this should be repeated once or 

 twice a week, till the greater part of the seed disappears : it is proper 

 to remark that such seeds as happen to be covered deeper than the 

 thickness of a half-crown piece will never vegetate, and must, of 

 course, inevitably perish. It is necessary that the seed be kept mo- 

 derately moist by gentle watering with soft water that has been ex- 

 posed to the sun, but too much moisture is nevertheless injurious. 



About the time that the, plants begin to appear, it is requisite to stir 

 the surface of the earth with a pin, just sufficiently to admit air, and 



