PROPAGATING 75 



it when it seemed ripe, and to make quite sure of this I 

 exposed it to dry air and sunlight for a week, and then 

 sowed it on March 23rd, 1911. On February 25th, 

 1912, the first crop of thirteen or fourteen little seedlings 

 came through the soil. A friend to whom I gave a 

 portion of the seed had exactly the same experience. 



The chief enemies to guard against are liverwort and 

 moss, both of which do their best to cover the soil with 

 their growth. I find it best to pick it off with the point 

 of a knife as soon as it is visible, and when the pots 

 have been in the frame for some months, I resurface 

 them with a fresh layer of silver sand. 



As soon as the little seedlings are large enough to 

 handle, I prick them off very carefully, and put them 

 three in a pot near the edge in say two-and-a-half 

 inch pots, and these are plunged into the ash bed, and 

 kept moist and shaded for a week or ten days, when the 

 shading can be removed. 



It is said that exposure to frost and snow greatly 

 hastens the germination of many Alpine seeds, 

 especially Gentians, and during the frosty weather, I 

 remove the glass light from the seed frame altogether. 



Whether the frost does help them, it is difficult to 

 say often after the thaw a crop of seedlings appear, 

 but whether this is due to frost action needs very careful 

 experiment to prove beyond doubt anyway it does 

 them no harm, so far as I have been able to observe. 



