220 OK PROPAGATING EXOTICS. 



and swelled to their proper size, for on these points much depends 

 as to the future germination of the seed when sown. If the plant 

 should happen to be exposed to the open air, as is the case with 

 greenhouse ones in summer, it should be removed to a situation 

 where showers cannot injure the impregnating and fertilizing part 

 of the fructification. When the seeds (semina) become loose, 

 and rattle in the seed vessel or pod (pericarpium) when shaken, 

 they are ripe, and should be gathered when quite dry, and after expo- 

 sure to the air in a shaded place, that they may still be further dried 

 and hardened, done up in separate packets and named ; they may 

 then be carefully put by in a dry place till the following spring. 

 From the latter end of February to the beginning of April, is the 

 most proper time for sowing exotic seeds, unless they are im- 

 ported from abroad, in which case some should be sown imme- 

 diately, whatever season it may be when they arrive : for some- 

 times seeds will grow when first received, which will not if kept a 

 few months longer. The remainder may be sown with your own 

 collected ones, and spring sowing is always preferable, for the 

 plant becomes strong to stand the succeeding winter. Pots of 

 five inches diameter and three and a half inches deep, with plenty 

 of potsherds, should be prepared previous to sowing, with a com- 

 post composed of two-thirds peat and one-third loam, well mixed 

 together. In preparing the pots for sowing the seeds in, a large 

 piece of broken pot, or oyster-shell, should first be placed over the 

 hole in the bottom of the pot ; over this should be put an inch 

 thick of finely broken potsherds, to drain off the superabundant 

 moisture from the seed ; then fill the potwith coarsely screened 

 compost (made as above directed), from an inch to a quarter of an 

 inch from the top, according to the largeness or smallness of the 

 seeds. The surface on which the seeds are sown, as well as the 

 covering soil, should be sifted very fine. After the seeds are sown, 

 cover them with soil to the top of the pot, and give them a gentle 

 watering from a fine rose watering-can. The pots must now be 

 plunged up to their rims in saw-dust, in a previously prepared 

 hot-bed, when the burning heat is over. Keep the frame-lights 

 quite close, except allowing in the middle of the day a little for 

 steam arising from the bed to pass off till the plants begin to ap- 

 pear. Due care must be taken to allow a supply of water when 

 lequired. As soon as th? ludiinciiti of the second leal are lbinaed 



