GEE 



[405] 



GRE 



there is no hotbed the latter period will 

 be the best, and even then, for confining 

 heat and moisture, the pot should be 

 covered with a bell-glass, or a square of 

 glass laid over it. Where there is a hot- 

 bed, such as a cucumber frame, the seeds 

 may be sown a month or six weeks earlier, 

 and hardened off as soon as they are 

 fairly up and potted off. In sowing, any 

 light, sandy soil will do; for all fine 

 hairy-rooted plants sandy peat is the best. 

 The pots should be nearly as well drained 

 as for cuttings, watered, and allowed to 

 drain before sowing, as the less water 

 they have afterwards until they are up 

 the better. Hard seeds that have been 

 kept dry over the winter will vegetate all 

 the sooner for being steeped several 

 hours in warm water, say from 13 to 14. 

 In covering the seeds the thickness 

 should be regulated by the size of the 

 seeds. Hence, for very small dusty seeds, 

 the surface of the fine soil should be 

 made smooth, the seeds evenly scattered 

 over it and slightly pressed in, and then 

 just dusted with a little fine sand ; but in 

 unpractised hands it is safer to be content 

 with the slight pressing in with a clean, 

 round board, having a nail in the centre 

 to hold by, and then place a square of glass 

 over the pot, with moss or paper above, 

 to shade until vegetation has taken place. 

 After-Treatment of Cuttings and Seed- 

 lings. This is almost identical. Neither 

 uttings nor seedlings, if at all thick, will 

 thrive long in the cutting and seedling 

 pot The sooner they are potted off the 

 better they will thrive. Before that, air 

 must be given to prevent them damping ; 

 first at night ; next, night, morning, and 

 evening ; and lastly, when roots are well 

 formed, during the day, removing the 

 glasses altogether from the cuttings. All 

 this time the little moisture necessary 

 must be carefully given. The less it 

 touches either the stems or leaves, the 

 better. When a little advanced, dust 

 them overhead with a fine rose watering- 

 pot; or a syringe, but be careful to have 

 the foliage dry before shutting up for the 

 night. In potting off tender plants that 

 are very small, three or four may be put 

 round the sides of a four-inch pot ; a 

 strong-growing one into such a pot at 

 once. In every such potting, and every 

 time that re-shifting is necessary, a moist, 

 close atmosphere is of importance for a 

 short time afterwards; thus lessening, 

 by means of shading and syringing, the 



evaporating processes until the roots 

 have begun to work in the new soil, when 

 air must be given, first gradually, and 

 ultimately plentifully. 



GREEN MANURE is a mass of recently- 

 growing plants dug whilstgreen and fresh 

 into the soil, for the purpose of enriching 

 it ; and it is a rule without any exception 

 that all fresh vegetable matters so turned 

 into the earth do render it more fertile ; 

 and if plants are grown upon the soil for 

 this purpose, the greater the amount of 

 the surface of leaves in proportion to that 

 of roots the better, because such plants 

 obtain a large proportion of their chief 

 constituent the chief constituent of all 

 plants, carbon from the atmosphere. 

 They therefore return to the soil more 

 decomposing matter than they have taken 

 from it. 



The putrefaction of the vegetables, 

 and the gases in that case emitted, says 

 Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, appear to be on 

 all occasions highly invigorating and 

 nourishing to the succeeding crop. During 

 this operation, the presence of water is 

 essentially necessary, and is most probably 

 decomposed. The gases produced vary 

 in different plants ; those which contain 

 gluten emit ammonia ; onions and a few 

 others evolve phosphorus ; hydrogen, 

 carbonic acid gas, and carburetted hy- 

 drogen gas, with various vegetable matters, 

 are almost always abundantly formed. 

 All these gases, when mixed with the soil, 

 are very nourishing to the plants growing 

 upon it. The observations of the farmer 

 assure us that they are so. He tells us 

 that all green manures cannot be em- 

 ployed in too fresh a state. 



Sea Weed is a species of green manure, 

 for it ought to be employed whilst quite 

 fresh. There are many species, and they 

 differ very essentially in their components. 

 The Lamiina'ria, those long, tawny-green, 

 ribbon-like algae, so common on our 

 coasts, contain, besides vegetable matter, 

 a large proportion of the salts of potash 

 in addition to those of soda; whereas 

 the Fu'ci contain none of the salts of 

 potash. All, however, are excellent ma- 

 nures; and we know a garden, near 

 Southampton, very productive, that for 

 some years had no other manure. It is 

 particularly good as a manure for pota- 

 toes. The Fu'cus vesiculo'sus, so distin- 

 guishable by the bladders full of air 

 embedded in its leaves, is a very excellent 

 manure. It contains, when dry, about 



