452 General Notices. 



time never allowing either of them to remain long enough to affect the 

 health of the plant. Watering by "driblets" is the worst of all water- 

 ing ; it keeps the surface of the soil in a puddle, but never reaches the 

 roots ; the eye is thus deceived, and the plant is often dead before the cause 

 is discovered. When a plant does not part with its moisture freely, like its 

 neighbors, but remains in a wet state, it should be immediately inspected ; 

 for should a plant remain subject daily to the application of driblets of 

 water for any time, death must of necessity ensue. One effectual water- 

 ing, whether applied to plants in pots under glass or to those committed to 

 the soil in the open ground, is not only of far greater utility, but much 

 more economical than ten ineffectual supplies. There is no duty attending 

 plant cultivation so difficult to perform as this, and to intrust it m careless 

 and incompetent hands will certainly entail upon a collection of valuable 

 plants positive ruin ; for unless he who uses the watering-pot has some 

 practical acquaintance with vegetable economy, and can discriminate so far 

 as to act agreeably to the necessities and wants of the subjects committed 

 to his care, he will always find himself a day's march in arrear. These 

 necessities and wants, be it remembered, are not quite so apparent to the 

 naked eye of the novice as they are to the keen and scrutinizing vision of 

 the ever-anxious, and hence ever-watchful, cultivator. 



There is a kind of watering very commonly performed in many places, 

 which cannot, when valuable and choice plants are attempted to be culti- 

 vated, be too severely censured. This is the daily afternoon supply, which 

 is given to every plant as far as time will admit, regardless of its require- 

 ments — at least, when this operation is intrusted to men of inexperience, 

 which is but too common ; and this kind of gardening goes on in many 

 places for years. Plants die, it is true ; but this is one of the unresolved 

 mysteries in gardening, which, to some minds, is quite satisfactory, and 

 enables them to account for the loss of plants by violent means. Finally, 

 it has been asked, how often are we to water this or that plant, and the 

 answer usually is, always when it requires it ; let us therefore add, and 

 with soiue earnestness, never before. {Id. p. 312.) 



Saving Seeds of Stocks. — The following is the method adopted by an 

 experienced cultivator to obtain good seed to produce double plants : — 



It is well known, that a bloom of the single stock has only four petals, but 

 where proper attention has been previously paid to the saving of the seed, 

 a disposition to double flowering of the single ones will frequently take 

 place ; the plants are, therefore, carefully examined, and those flowers that 

 have five or six petals are only allowed to produce seed pods ; but as it 

 frequently happens that a sufficient number cannot be obtained, to produce 

 a sufficient quantity of seed, those plants are selected which grow beside 

 double flowering ones. The first seven or eight blooms are picked off 

 from the bottom of the spike ; the next seven are left to produce seed-pods ; 

 and to prevent exhaustion, the upper part of the spike, after the pods are 

 well-formed, is broken off. The lateral shoots continue to produce blos- 

 som, but none are allowed to produce seed-pods. All that is required in 



