ANUARV I, 



I8 9 0.] 



Garden and Forest. 



Fig. 2. — A Cypress Swamp in Southern Indiana. — See page 



seeds are liberated. It is often impossible to separate the 

 seeds from the fragments of pulp and the particles of sand, 

 nor is it necessary to do so. I sow sand, pulp, seeds and all, 

 in many cases. In the case of rare seeds, however, I manage, 

 by sifting the sand before it is used, to sift out the seeds with 

 tolerable accuracy. In all cases in which the seeds are few 

 and valuable, I should prefer to rub them out rather than to 

 macerate them. There are some seeds which are injured by 

 maceration, unless the operation is expeditious. 



All seeds with bony coverings, such as nuts, pits and the 

 like, should be procured as soon after maturity as possible, 

 and put in stratification during the winter. This operation 

 consists in burying seeds in layers of clear sand and ex- 

 posing them to the weather of winter. A layer of sand an 

 inch or two deep is placed in the bottom of a pot or box, and 

 alternate layers of seeds and sand are added until the pot is 

 full. The pot is now buried a foot or so below the surface in 

 a sandy and well drained soil, or it is placed in a partially pro- 

 tected pit. This prevents the seeds from becoming hard and 

 dry, and the freezing and thawing, with a little variation in 

 moisture, soften or rupture the integuments. It is a popular 

 notion that freezing is necessary to the germination of Peach- 

 pits and similarseeds, but this is an error. Freezing hastens ger- 

 mination by hastening the rupture of integuments, but artificial 



cracking is as good. It usually happens, 

 however, that buried pits, even though 

 not split by frost, germinate belter than 

 those stored in a building and cracked by 

 hand, but this is due to the fact that the 

 buried seeds have not been allowed to 

 become dry and bard. There are certain 

 seeds and fruits which demand particu- 

 lar methods of handling for purposes of 

 convenience. I stratify walnuts and but- 

 ternuts by heaping them into a pile out- 

 of-doors, mixing in sand and leaves. 

 Acorns are simply kept in boxes of 

 moist leaves. If the seeds are small and 

 few, I place them between layers of thin 

 muslin before stratifying them. They are 

 then easily separated from the sand. 



Stratification and sowing may some- 

 times be combined. .If the ground is well 

 drained and well prepared, seeds of Ap- 

 ples, Pears and berries may be sown in 

 'the fall, where they are to grow, with good 

 success. I rarely have good success with 

 Apple and similar seeds purchased of 

 seedsmen. The seeds have been so 

 thoroughly dried that they are often past 

 recovery. The best practice in such 

 cases, probably, is to soak the seeds a few 

 days, exposing them to a few sharp frosts. 

 If fruit seeds are to be transported they 

 should be packed in some material which 

 will preserve tolerable uniformity of 

 moisture. Pear-seeds which I have im- 

 ported from France, packed in powdered 

 charcoal, have germinated speedily. 



Many hard seeds do not germinate the 

 first year, even with the best treatment. 

 The seeds of Thorns and other wild fruits 

 belong to this category, and even the 

 seeds of many herbaceous plants behave 

 similarly. Sedges often require two years 

 in which to germinate, and it is unusual 

 for seeds of the wild perennials to germi- 

 nate until the following spring, even if 

 they are sown as soon as they are ripe. 

 All that can be done with such seeds is 

 to sow them in permanent beds and keep 

 the land clean until the plants appear. I 

 prefer to sow rare seeds in pots. The 

 pots' are then plunged in earth in a cold 

 trame, which is placed on the north side 

 of a building or in such a position as to 

 be partially screened from the sun. The 

 frame is then covered with a sash, or, 

 better.with plant-bed cloth. About 100 pots 

 of seeds of Sedges and other wild herbs 

 were sown here last spring, and at the 

 present time less than one-fourth of the 

 Idnds have germinated. The pots in 

 which plants have appeared will be 

 plunged in a pit in order that the roots 

 may not freeze dry, and the remainder will remain for a year 

 or two until germination takes place. 



Manner of Sowing. — Only general hints can be given as to 

 the manner of sowing. Explicit instructions must come with 

 instruction for the cultivation of the particular species. Much 

 has been said concerning the depth of sowing, and rulesdrawn 

 from the size of the seed have been made ; but arbitrary in- 

 struction cannot be given. In houses where uniformity of 

 moisture can be maintained, people sow too deep oftenerthan 

 too shallow. Simply covering the seeds with soil enough to 

 hold moisture is sufficient in most cases, and seeds thus 

 planted are not liable to rot or to be delayed by too much 

 water. The condition of the soil as concerns moisture must 

 always determine the depth of planting in the field also. Plant 

 deep in dry soils and shallow in moist soils. In other words, 

 plant just deep enough to ensure uniformity of moisture. 



In fact, the commonest cause of failure in seed-sowing is too 

 much moisture. This is particularly true in the case of old 

 and weak seeds, which are quickly killed by much wetting. 

 Seeds from remote parts of the world, or which, I have reason 

 to suppose, possess low vitality, are never watered directly. 

 They are sown in a pot, and this pot is set inside a larger one, 

 and the intermediate space is filled with sphagnum or packing 

 moss. The water is applied to the moss, and it passes through 



