PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 95 



valuable qualities of the variety lost. The cabbage may 

 be late or long-legged, and not head at all, or the radish 

 tough and misshapen. 



Preserving Seed, The very finest plants should be 

 chosen for this purpose, that is, those most true to their 

 kind and most perfect in shape and quality. In the cab- 

 bage, for instance, a small, short stem, well formed head 

 with few loose leaves ; in the turnip, large bulb, small neck, 

 few, short and slender-stalked leaves, and solid flesh. In 

 the radish, high color (unless white,) small neck, few and 

 short leaves ; and in the case of flowers, seed should be 

 saved only from those most perfectly developed. 



Great care should be taken to preserve the varieties un- 

 mixed, for, as just stated, if varieties of the same species, 

 or very similar species, are planted near each other, they 

 will cross and produce untrue seed. In this way, it is 

 true, valuable varieties often originate, but the chances 

 are that the produce will be worthless. There can be no 

 cross between a cabbage and a carrot, because they are 

 of totally different families, and there is no similarity ; but 

 all the varieties of cabbage will cross with each other, 

 with Brussels sprouts, in short with all others of the genus 

 Brassica. So of corn ; in a few years the early varieties 

 from the North, planted in Southern gardens, become so 

 intermingled with the ordinary sorts, that the early char- 

 acter is lost. The difficulty of keeping seeds pure renders 

 it advisable not to save seeds of two varieties of any spe- 

 cies the same year, except in large gardens. Many kinds 

 of seed it is more advantageous to buy of the regular 

 seedsmen, than to grow and save them at home. The 

 finest seeds in the world are grown where an amateur 

 makes one or two species of plants, like Truffaut with 

 Asters, a specialty, using every possible care for their im- 

 provement. 



Crossing and Hybridizing. These terms are used by 

 many as meaning the same thing ; strictly speaking, Jiy- 



