NOVEMBER. 541 



buds were left in the full glare of light, instead of being furnished with a 

 good thick nightcap. Some of our readers will know what is inoant without 

 more particular explanation. 



5. But if it is wrong to expose the bud of the hyacinth to light until the 

 roots are formed abundantly, it is quite as bad to witlihold light after the 

 roots are ready. As soon as tlie lower system is in full activity, the upper 

 should be stimulated. At that time the neighborhood of a window, espe- 

 cially an open one, if possible, where air is in the most free motion, should 

 be selected for the residence of the hyacinth by day — while at night it may 

 be transferred to the coolest place in the house where frost gains no admis- 

 sion. A worse place than the mantel-piece cannot be selected, except to 

 put the hyacinth in when its flowers are formed and beginning to open. At 

 that time the work of cultivation is over, and the plant may be transferred 

 to the fair hands of those avIio are charged with the pleasant duty of making 

 a sitting room as cheerful and beautiful as the open garden. — [Gard. Chron., 

 1855, p. 531.) 



|i!loiitj)lu 6ossij}. 



GrARDEN Seeds. — There is a matter to which I wish to call the attention 

 of the public, and especially of that portion of it which deal in garden 

 seeds ; and that is, the bad quality of many of the kinds that they send 

 round among us. At five cents a paper, which, on an average contains 

 each not more than a table spoonful, they can well afford to furnish us with 

 the very best of new seeds indued with full and active vitality. But I am 

 sure some do not, and I hazard the remark that none take the pains they 

 ought to take. The loss of 5, 10, or 15 cents is not much; but that is by 

 no means the whole loss. There is the loss of the labor of preparing the 

 ground, of sowing the seed, of much of the manure used, and of the expected 

 crop. And there is the vexation, which, in this world, which is so full of 

 vexations, ought not to be inflicted upon us, if seed sellers can well help it. 

 The complaint does not proceed from one only, but from many. 



There is hardly any seed which does not lose a portion of its vitality ; 

 some lose all, if kept over more than one winter. It is pretty well known 

 that seed sellers take back, in the fall, the seed unsold in the preceding 

 spring, and the suspicion is rife among us tliat the seed taken back is 

 offered again, and perhaps a third or fourth time. The papers bear no date 

 of the year v/hen the seed was raised ; and why do they not ? 



I fear the seed sellers do not take sufficient care to put up only the best 

 seed. In all cases, where the plant is biennial, they should use none but 

 large, healthy roots ; and when it is umbeliferous, like the parsnip, or 

 branching, like the beet, they should put up none but such as is borne on the 

 central umbels and the principal branches. If they were to remove the 

 inferior umbels, (the umbels only), and the tops of the inferior branches, 

 at the time of blossoming, or before, the umbels and branches left would bear 



