FLOWERS AND PLANXo. 329 



Seedlings, Seed Saving, and Pruning. — All new varieties 

 must be had from the seed. You may propagate for ever from 

 the old plant of anything, and the young ones will be like the 

 old one ; but if we propagate from seed we may find among 

 the seedlings something new. It is thus that we have im- 

 proved races — it was by these means that all the improvements 

 in fruit, flowers, plants, and vegetables have been made. In 

 our notice of hybridizing we have given a good idea of what 

 has been and can be done by cross breeding. We cannot 

 alter the character of seed once saved, but we can direct the 

 course it will take a httle while we are saving it. For 

 instance, we can put some of the very best of the sorts of 

 plants together, save the seed from them, and thus do some- 

 thing towards insuring good, and some may be new varieties ; 

 but some plants sport so much, that perhaps out of the seed 

 from a white dahlia we may get all colours hut white, and there 

 are other flowers as much inclined to roam. In any attempt 

 then to save seed for the improvement of the flower, or 

 vegetable, or fruit, select the very best that you can procure, 

 half a dozen sorts if you can, place them together, and there is 

 a chance of their impregnating one another, and giving some 

 crop for the better as well as for the worse. When any sub- 

 ject is seeding, watch that you may gather it when ripe, or 

 you may lose it by the bursting of the pods. When seed has 

 well ripened, it only requires to be kept dry and from the air. 

 If it once get damp, or be put away before it is thoroughly 

 dry, mildew and death are sure to follow. If you send it 

 abroad, it should be sealed up in bottles soldered in tin 

 canisters, for seed will last many years when kept from the 

 air. 



Beauty in Plants and Flowers. — Beauty is not very 

 easily defined, for it may be seen in every tribe of plants, and 

 nearly every family of flowers. Whatever has too many or 

 too few leaves carmot be beautifal as a whole, but its flowers 

 may be all that can be desired ; on the other hand, a plant 

 may be very splendid in habit, have very little flower, and 

 that little ugly. A plant to be beautiful must have a fine 

 proportion of bloom, graceful foliage, and be of graceful form ; 

 generally speaking the public is a good judge in the long run 

 of what is beautiful ; witness the plants which are fovourite? 

 among the middle and even humble classes, as well as among 

 plantsmen. The camellia, the geranium, fuchsia, calceolaria, 



