Culture of Seedling Ranunculuses. 549 



double. I then began to impregnate the double flowers with 

 the farina of the single ones. This could not be done with 

 effect in every case ; but wherever I found an old flower with 

 a pericarpium, or eye, I gathered a single or semidouble 

 flower, and applied the farina to the eye of the double flower. 

 Soon after this operation I perceived the pericarpium or seed- 

 vessel increase in size, until many of them became an inch 

 long, particularly those of the Variat, Arbrisseau, Grand Mo- 

 narque, Horatio, Rose Incomparable, La Tendresse, and a few 

 others. I kept the seeds separate, at least I preserved them 

 in classes; dark yellow-edged, &c, and others the most strongly 

 marked ; and sowed them in separate boxes, and the next year 

 I planted the roots in separate rows. The result has been that 

 they all bear a striking resemblance to the mother plant, as to 

 colour and habit of growth. The seeds sowed from Naxara, 

 Variat, and Viola la vraie noire produced dark flowers. Those 

 sowed from Arbrisseau, Grand Monarque, and Horatio, pro- 

 duced yellow spotted and edged, and several superior to the 

 original plants. Double flowers cannot produce seed, because 

 they contain no anthers, but merely the germ, which must 

 come in contact with the farina from the single flowers before 

 it can be impregnated ; for which reason no good seed can be 

 saved from double flowers without a bed of seedlings. 



I have sowed at all seasons from the 1 st of August to the 

 1st of March. I prefer the middle or latter end of October, 

 and the beginning of January, to other times. I sow in boxes 

 1 8 in. by 1 1 in. and 4 in. deep. I fill them full of loamy 

 earth, and press the surface level. Then I sow the seeds 

 about an eighth of an inch apart, cover them as thinly as 

 possible, and water with a fine rose ; then I place the boxes 

 under glass without heat. The plants usually make their ap- 

 pearance in about a month. I give air day and night, except 

 in severe frost ; then I cover up with straw mats ; with such 

 protection the young plants will endure the severest seasons. 

 Mine were not injured by the severity of last winter. I clean 

 the surface of the boxes from green moss in February, and 

 top-dress them. I put the boxes in the open ground up to 

 the edge the second week in May, and water daily until the 

 grass begins to wither. I then suffer the boxes to become 

 quite dry ; and in the middle of July I take them up and pre- 

 serve the roots in bags until February, when I plant them as 

 I do my general stock. In the following June they flower in 

 great profusion. 



I am confident if florists would adopt this method that 

 more than half the old flowers under name would soon be 

 thrown into mixtures. Much has been done in raising seed- 



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