THE BALSAM HOUSE. 147 



flower, and from the base of the lower laterals ; and if 

 it is saved from the extremities of either the laterals 

 or the main spike, none but the commonest single 

 flowers will be the result in the next generation. 

 Mark, learn, and digest this fact, and prove the truth 

 of my remarks. No Balsam seed can be guaranteed to 

 produce double flowers if these conditions are not 

 observed. It is the same with Stock seed, but each 

 can be warranted to produce double flowers at least 

 ninety out of every hundred will come double if 

 carefully saved according to these rules ; and that is 

 how it is that some customers can be served from the 

 same firm with all good double seed, while others will 

 get, perhaps, not one double flower in five hundred 

 plants. There is no such a thing as changing the 

 constitution of the present seed by cultivation. You 

 can produce as fine-grown specimens of the Balsam as 

 you please by high cultivation, but if the seed is not 

 constituted to produce double flowers by virtue of the 

 concentrated juices of the plant, none, or but a very 

 very small percentage, will come double. Hence the 

 necessity of selecting seed from the main spike, and 

 from the first flowers of the plant. These only are 

 warrantable, and those who save seed otherwise do so 

 at all hazards of reputation. 



This careful saving of both Balsam and Stock seed, 

 as well as that of Mangel Wurzel, Beet, Cabbage, 

 Broccoli, &c., is of the utmost importance. In the case 

 of the Balsam and Stock, the flowers should be thinned 

 out, and all except those up the main spike and at the 

 base of the laterals should be taken off, thus concen- 

 trating all the powers of the plant in the remaining 

 flowers. This is the only really safe guarantee that 



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