RAISING CAKNATIONS FROM SEED. 183 
as a tolerably successful cultivator of that delightful flower, to offer a 
few remarks. 
Experience has proved to me the error of sowing seed from self 
colours, or those possessing bad properties, as, by repeated trials, I am 
satisfied that the only chance of obtaining superior flowers is to sow 
your own seed, produced from those acknowledged to be first-rate. 
The course I have adopted, and which I recommend, is, when the 
petals are dead, to pluck them out of the calyx, or cup containing the 
seed-vessel, leaving the two styles, or what are generally called the 
horns ; by removing the former, the pods are kept dry, and more ex- 
posed to the sun and air; they should at all times be protected from rain, 
by placing over them the shades used at the time of blooming; and 
care should be taken that the vessels wherein the legs of your platform 
stand, are constantly supplied with water, to prevent the approach of 
those nocturnal enemies—earwigs. When the seed-vessels become 
hard, and present a brown appearance at the tip, they should be 
gathered, and in that state preserved, in a perfectly dry situation, until 
the following April or May, which is the period for sowing in pots or 
boxes filled with rich loam, taking care not to cover the seed more 
than a quarter of an inch; give them a slight watering before they are 
plunged into a hot-bed of about 65 degrees ; occasionally moisten the 
surface with soft water, of the same temperature as the air in the 
frame; and as soon as the plants appear, admit the air freely during 
the day-time, to prevent their being drawn up. When about three 
inches high, transplant into larger pots or boxes of rich turf mould, 
five inches apart ; place them in a southern aspect, at first protecting 
during the nights with matting, and applying moderate light 
watering in dry weather; but invariably avoid wetting the plants, as 
too much moisture frequently decays the hearts of the shoots, and pre- 
vents their blooming the second year. In about six weeks again 
transplant them, a foot asunder, into beds prepared of good sandy loam, 
mixed with rich garden mould ; keep the beds clear from weeds, and 
water copiously in the evenings during the summer. By adopting the 
above course, the plants will be found exceedingly strong towards Oc- 
tober, and require little or no protection in the winter ; but should any 
appear particularly weak and unhealthy, take them up, and after ex- 
amining the roots, which is generally the seat of disease in plants, re- 
plant them in a different compost, and during the severe weather protect 
with pots raised about two inches upon pieces of tile. I have always 
found a long bed in the centre of a grass plot, about three or four feet 
wide, so as to admit of two or three rows, by far the best situation for 
seedlings, being more easily protected when necessary by mats or hoops, 
aud decidedly less liable to be injured by snails, &c. In the following 
April let the beds be well cleaned, and the surface carefully loosened, 
to receive a thin top-dressing of rotten manure, the application of 
which will be found materially to renovate the mould, as after so many 
months it necessarily becomes much impoverished. I am not, how- 
ever, an advocate for planting seedlings in very rich compost, as it is 
much more practicable by cultivation to put colour into a flower, than 
to extract it. When the shoots are grown about a foot high, they 
