4iW llemarJcs a?id Observations suggested 



the section Bottom Heat), the surface, so much pulverised, has a 

 tendency, by the rains and action of the weather, to get closed 

 again ; and the seeds do not rise so freely as when the soil is 

 open. So much is this the case, that I have frequently seen, in 

 beds of seedling trees that had failed and stood for two or three 

 months, if the surface merely were raked when new seeds were 

 sown, the plants came up quite yellow and sickly in the coty- 

 ledons, and there was a necessity to point it up again with the 

 spade, and bring up a fresh surface, before we could secure a 

 healthy braird. From the same cause, when seeds lie long in the 

 ground before germinating, they often come weakly ; and, to ob- 

 viate this, the best method is to bring the seeds as nearly to 

 sprouting as possible before sowing, when they come through 

 quickly and strong. Many small seeds, which will not bear deep 

 covering, and for which we cannot always get a sufficiently long 

 period of cloudy weather, are also with more certainty managed 

 in this way, by bringing them nearly to germination before 

 sowing. For this purpose, they are generally spread on a damp 

 floor in a dark corner, 1 or 2 feet thick, if in quantities, or on 

 separate floors or saucers if the quantities are small, and 

 thoroughly wetted all over from the rose of a watering pan ; 

 the seed repeatedly turned with a rake, or the hands if necessary, 

 till all the seeds are damped, and then left for a few days, when 

 it should be again turned to prevent moulding and decomposing, 

 and, if getting dry, damped again ; and this should be continued 

 every three or four days till the time of sowing. The seeds are 

 thus kept regularly damp, and excluded from light, from which 

 they should be covered if the place is not dark ; and, as the 

 farina of the seeds begins to decompose, oxygen is extracted, 

 and the heat given off is thus collected in the heap. For all weak, 

 dry, farinaceous seeds that take a long time in vegetating, as 

 birch, alder, larch, spruce, carrot, &c., this method is very bene- 

 ficial; for pines, turnips, and other oily seeds, that do not re- 

 quire so much water to germinate them, it is not so necessary, 

 and there is more danger of their spoiling from want of attention 

 in turning. A little quicklime in the state of powder, mixed among 

 the seeds when damping, is very beneficial in promoting germina- 

 tion ; it furnishes an alkaline substance which we have seen is be- 

 neficial ; it has also a great affinity for carbon, from having parted 

 with its carbonic acid in the act of burning, and carbon must be 

 taken from the food to render it soluble; oxygen is also ex- 

 tracted from the air or water to form the carbon into carbonic 

 acid, and the extrication of oxygen produces heat. We had an 

 opportunity of testing its good effects some years ago (as nar- 

 rated before in the Gardeiier^s Magazine), on some old spruce 

 fir seed which had been three years out of the cones. The year 

 before, when two years out of the cone, the seed, when damped 



