SPRING TREATMENT. 4? 



long, they lose their vegetative properties. This I 

 have found, from experience, to be the case ; hav- 

 ing kept some paper bags of these, which I sowed 

 in spring, 1842, and which never vegetated ; I also 

 sowed some of the same seed when gathered, which 

 came up strongly. But the larger seeds may be 

 kept in bags during Winter, and sown in March 

 in pots, which, being properly crocked, can be filled 

 with a mixture of sandy loam, peat, and a little 

 leaf mould, and beat firmly into the pots, and the 

 seeds sown thereon, with a top dressing or sprink- 

 ling of very fine sifted soil above them ; then neatly 

 tallied and placed in the frame, when attention must 

 be paid to the progress they make. When fairly 

 up, the seedlings may be pricked out into thumb 

 pots, and afterwards potted into No. 60, 48, and 32, 

 according to the kind. 



But, to explain better the operation of pricking 

 out, when the plants or seedlings have attained 

 to one inch, half an inch, or when the second leaf 

 is coming on, according to the genus or species, pre- 

 pare thumb pots (the smallest size), by beating the 

 soil into them ; then, with a small sharp pointed 

 stick, make a hole in the soil, in which the seedling 

 is to be placed, then press the soil closely about it, 

 giving it a watering with a very fine rosed water- 

 pot. This operation is expressed by the Horticul- 

 tural term, pricking out. 



But there are some of this tribe that sow them- 

 selves naturally; these, however, are chiefly annuals, 



