PRESERVATION OF SEEDS. , 131 



found to keep better than when cleaned. Never- 

 theless, when they are to be sown the following year, 

 or sent any where in a letter, it is better to take 

 them out of the covering, and render them as clean 

 as possible, by passing them through sieves, with 

 holes sufficiently large to admit the escape of dust, 

 but not of the seeds. Such sieves, on a small 

 scale, every lady may make for herself by turning 

 up the edges of a piece of thin pasteboard cut in 

 a circular form, and piercing the bottom with holes 

 with a large pin or darning needle. When it is 

 determined to separate the seeds from the seed-ves- 

 sels, instead of putting up the whole together, the 

 vessels after gathering may be dried in the sun ; 

 when many of the seeds will come out by the ex- 

 pansion of the seed-vessels in the heat, and the 

 remainder can easily be rubbed out. This is the 

 usual practice of nurserymen. For keeping seeds, 

 a lady ought to have a small cabinet, which she 

 might form herself of pasteboard, with as many 

 drawers as there are letters in the alphabet ; and as 

 her seeds are put up in papers, she can tie the 

 packets of each genus by themselves, and put them 

 in the appropriate drawer. Where so much trouble 

 can not be taken, a large brown paper bag, or a 

 canvass bag, for each letter of the alphabet, may be 

 substituted. 



The period during which seeds will retain their 

 vegetative powers differs in different families, gen- 

 era, and even species. Seeds of the Ranunculaceae 

 and the cruciferae, will, in general, retain thetr vital- 

 ity for several years, in whatever manner they may 

 be kept ; provided the situation be not such as will 

 cause them to germinate. On the other hand, seeds 

 of the Capsicum will keep for several years if re- 



