hy Liindley's Theory of Horticulture, 4,61 



plants removed from a green-house to the open air. For the 

 purpose of keeping the roots close, and making the plants hardy, 

 a close adhesive soil is best to transplant finally from; but, at the 

 first planting out of seedlings, a loose free soil is indispensable : 

 a cold clay soil is many degrees lower in heat than a warm sili- 

 ceous soil. Growth will commence fully a month earlier in light 

 free soil; the fibres run more freely; the ground keeps closer in 

 dry weather, and does not open into rents admitting the drought, 

 as a clay soil does ; heat and moisture ai'e better retained ; and 

 seedlings should be planted in rich light soil, and when a year 

 or two old removed into adhesive soil, before fully planting out. 

 Where very large plants are moved, and the roots necessarily a 

 good deal hurt, we have Mr. M'Nab's experience to warrant us, 

 that the tops should also correspondingly be mutilated or cut, to 

 prevent the action of the complete foliage from being too exces- 

 sive for the mutilated roots to supply. 



In the Preservation of Races by Seed, the method of obtain- 

 ing extra-fine varieties, by saving seed from the best, and picking 

 and rouging these again and again, to fix the quality in the seed, 

 by the tendency of all seedlings to come like their parent ; to 

 preserve the race distinct, by preventing intermixture of the 

 flowers of others nearly allied ; to get wheat, &c., to ripen earlier, 

 by getting the seed from earlier and drier soils, using the smallest 

 seeds, &c., are all clearly pointed out and illustrated from theory. 

 The operations quoted from the Indian gardeners, to improve 

 the varieties from seed, are similar to the methods pursued in 

 obtaining double flowers, namely, to check first and then lux- 

 uriate ; the luxuriance has all the greater effects from the previous 

 check. The instance mentioned of Brussels sprouts degenerating, 

 when the seed is saved at a distance from Brussels, is similar to 

 that of the early Dutch horn carrot, which will not come true 

 from seed saved in this country. There must be some peculi- 

 arity in the soil or climate of Holland, which produces those and 

 the hyacinth roots so much more perfectly ; in the case of the 

 latter it has been attributed to the presence of saline water, at a 

 certain depth in the soil, the land having been gained from the 

 sea by embankments. 



In the Improvement of Races, the necessity of getting seeds 

 from healthy parents is clearly pointed out. If more attention 

 were paid by nurserymen in selecting their seeds from the most 

 healthy trees, and if planters would encourage this, by a better 

 price paid for these, a great improvement might result. In the 

 case of Scotch fir we might not need to have recourse to the 

 Highlands and Hagenau for seeds ; unless these are healthier 

 plants, it will be no improvement. Health is different from 

 luxuriance, as the fattest animal is not always the healthiest, 

 and a healthy moderate-growing tree will produce the best 



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