302 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Sow Tcvbena seeds now in good soil and you will get good flowers this sea- 

 son. Select seeds from the best flowers and plant them until you may get 

 what 3'ou are in pursuit of. Seeds kept some years are more likely to pro- 

 duce double flowers than new seed. It is a work of time, but nearly all 

 the flowers we have maybe improved. 



Dr. Grant. — Forty years ago I had two hollyhock seeds, of two sorts. 

 From the flowers of these two seeds I saved seeds, and continued to plant 

 till I got the most beautiful double flowers, by a continued progression. 

 A hollyhock may be made perennial by not allowing the flowers to go to 

 seed. 



PREPARATION OF FLOWER BEDS. 



R. G. Pardee. — The soil must be finely prepared. I sift some of it for 

 the surface of a flower bed, and make it very level. Sow the flower seed3 

 on the sifted soil, and then sift about one-sixteenth of an inch of the soil 

 over them. I would cover the soil of a new bed with boards, or cloth, to 

 prevent disturbing them in a hard rain. It is also useful to shade it from 

 very hot sunshine. Some seeds need scalding to make them vegetate. 



Mr. Meigs. — I planted seed of the Cypress vine, more than forty years 

 ago, which did not vegetate for one year ! 



Dr. Adamson gave an interesting description of the Rafilesia, which, he 

 said, is a very curious plant. It is of a sort of mushroom character. It is 

 not fragrant. Its shape is of a basin form. Its uses and value are not very 

 apparent. It is always attached to the root of a tree. It originated in 

 the Island of Sumatra, and was named in honor of Gov. Rafile, who sent it 

 over to England, where it has been propagated. It does not properly be- 

 long to the fungus order of plants, although it resembles them. It is only 

 grown as a curiosity, in large gardens. 



The flowers, when decayed, have a footid odor, like decayed flesh. 

 Its seeds are microscopic. 



Mr. Pardee. — Mr. Charlton, the horticulturist, of Staten Island, grows 

 several stump parasites, of curious character. 



Mr. A. M. Powell, of Columbia, recommended parlor flower portable 

 conservatories, as being very beautiful ornaments. 



Mr. Fuller. — They are ; very much so. 



Dr. Grant. — 1 entirely coincide I 



Dr. Adamson. — The difficulty of transporting some valuable seeds to 

 great distances, led to the adoption of these portable conservatories, by 

 which the growing plant can be taken long voyages successfully. They 

 became common, as parlor ornaments, in London, five years ago. The 

 ferns and mosses grow well in them. Many flowers not existing in nature, 

 are now produced by art. Stamens become, under culture, petals, as we 

 see in the Hyacinth. Is the change to improvement in the seed ? We 

 sow seeds of single petals, which become double. We have an illustration 

 in the Rocky Mountain corn before us, where the grains are each 

 closely covered with their separate husks originally ; but here, while one 



