20 



specie? as far apart as possible, for it is a well attested 

 fact, that if two different varieties of a vegetable are 

 permitted to blossom at the same time, within a short 

 distance of each other, they intermix, and produce a 

 hybrid partaking of the character of both parents. — 

 The fertilizing dust of the stamens in the flowers of 

 one plant, is conveyed by the wind or insects to the 

 pistils in the flowers of the other. The distinctive 

 features of each are thereby lost, while the new vari- 

 ety may not possess a single point to make it worthy 

 of cultivation. For instance, you set out an early 

 Dwarf and a Drum-head cabbage side by side for their 

 seed. One you value for its extreme earliness, the 

 other for its lateness and its winter keeping quality. 

 Having raised a fine lot of seed, you plant it the en- 

 suing year, but instead of Early Dwarf, you have a la- 

 ter cabbage of a coarse quality, partaking perhaps, 

 more of the character of the Early Dwarf than any 

 thing else, but yet not the true kind ; and instead of 

 the Drum-head, you have a cabbage that ripens earli- 

 er and does not keep so well as that which is true to 

 its kind, so that you are disappointed in both. 



This fact is of great importance to the gardener, 

 and should be strictly observed. Those who have but 

 a small piece of ground, will not be able to raise a 

 large variety of seed the same year, nor is it necessa- 

 ry. Many kinds of seed keep a number of years, so 

 that the gardener can raise of one variety of a genus, 

 sufficient to last as long as the seed will keep and re- 

 tain its vitality. For instance, he can raise this year 

 at one side of his garden, his Cauliflower seed ; at the 

 other his Savoy Cabbage seed. Next year, he may in 

 the same manner, raise his Sugarloaf and Battersea 

 Cabbage seed, and in this way go through the whole 

 Brassica tribe. So also of the Cuciimis or Gou7^d tribe. 

 But it is better to raise only one kind where there is 

 danger of hybridizing, and depend upon some Seed- 

 man of kuown honor for your others. 



*^0f such varieties as you select for seeding, choose 



