980 " PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



airy loft, and the pods being afterwards threshed or opened, the seeds may be preserved 

 in bags or boxes till spring, or sent to any distance. 



7022. Sowing. The season for sowing all of them is February ; the soil should be 

 light, deep, and sandy, and the seeds placed an inch apart, and covered three quarters of 

 an inch thick. This should be particularly attended to in the case of the laburnum, the 

 seeds of which, being generally sure growers, if they rise thick, they lose their leaves 

 about midsummer, become mildewed, and die. Attention should be paid not to inter- 

 mix the tree-laburnum (C. alpinus,'^N. en.) with the shrubby sort. 



Sect. VI. Trees and Shrubs bearing small soft Seeds, their Sowing and Rearing. 



7023. The jrrincipal hardy trees with small seeds are as under : 



Alnus glutinosa, November 

 Betula alba, October 

 Ulmus campestris, June 



glabra, June 

 Populus nigra, May 



Populus alba, May 



balsamifera, May * 



Salix alba, June. 



Shruhs. 

 Syringa vulgaris, October 



Cistus, various species, September 

 Philadelphus coronarius, October 

 Salix pentandra, August 



Dabylonica, June 

 Rhus cotinus, and other species, July. 



tremula. May 



7024. Gathering and keeping. All these require to be gathered as soon as ripe, other- 

 wise some are apt to drop out of their capsules, as the alder, birch, and lilac ; and 

 others to be blown away and lost, as the elm, poplar, willow, and sumach. They should 

 be gathered perfectly dry, and spread dun in a airy loft, till fit to put up in bags or boxes, 

 for keeping or deportation. 



7025. Sowing. Most of the sorts may be sown immediately after being gathered, in 

 which case they will be more certain of germinating ; and a number of elms, poplars, and 

 willows, will come up the same autumn. But as protection during winter will, in that 

 case, become requisite, the better way, in general, is to defer sowing till March or April, 

 when all the sorts may be sown in light rich earth, rather moist, and covered not more 

 than half an inch. The principal tree of this class is the broad-leaved elm, which, where 

 intended for two-year seedlings, which, in most cases, is the preferable age for trans- 

 planting, should be sown to rise at least two inches apart, as the plants grow with great 

 vigor even the first year. 



7026. Their transplanti?ig and future culture are the same as directed for berried stones, 

 keys, &c. 



Sect. VII. Culture common to all the Classes of Tree-seeds. 



7027. Insects and vermin. New-sown seeds of most kinds are greedily devoured by 

 various descriptions of vermin. Mice attack " acorns, sweet chestnuts, hazel-nuts, wal- 

 nuts, and holly-seeds. They not only eat them on the spot, but they carry to their re- 

 treats great numbers of the seeds of which they are most fond. The cheapest, and per- 

 haps the most effectual trap for their destruction, is the well known but neglected fourth 

 figure trap. (Jig. 668.) The new-sown haws and 

 mountain ash berries are a prey to the chaffinches, 

 green linnets, and other birds. If the quantity sown 

 be not great, the beds may be hooped over and co- 

 vered with small-meshed nets. But if a great breadth 

 of ground be sown, it must be constantly watched 

 after sowing. If the watching be vigilantly attended to, 

 for a few days immediately after sowing, the seed will 

 not need much more attention till they begin to break 

 the ground ; at which period the watching should be 

 closely and regularly continued. As they are always the strongest and best-ripened seeds 

 which rise first; it is therefore of much importance to prevent these from being picked 

 up." {Plant. Kalend. 250.) 



7028. Weeds. Before the tree-seeds come up a crop of weeds will probably have made 

 their appearance ; these are to be removed when young, otherwise drawing out their roots 

 will materially disturb the vegetating seeds. " It not unfrequently happens, that the land 

 in which fir and larch seeds have been sown, becomes battered by heavy rains. This will 

 certainly happen if rain fall immediately after sowing before the surface become dry ; 

 but if it once be fully dried after sowing, and before the rain fall, it will seldom or never 

 batter. Suppose, however, the seed-beds are battered, so that the tender seeds cannot 

 rise with freedom, the best way to relieve them is to draw over them a wooden roller, 

 stuck over with lath-nails at half an inch distance, and driven in so as to remain half an 

 inch beyond the wood of the roller. The roller should not be more than thirty jwches 

 long and not more than thirty pounds weight. By drawing this roller along the one 

 side of the battered bed, while walking in the alley, and returning with it over the other, 

 an ordinary-sized bed will be completely relieved. Some people rake their battered beds, 

 in order to enable the seeds to rise. This is a most dangerous and destructive method of 

 relieving vegetating plants. From their tender state, the smallest twist breaks them 

 over, and consequently destroys them. We have experienced much advantage from using 



