JANUARY 167 



may imagine you have sown thinly enough. Some seed- 

 lings will transplant perfectly, and not suffer at all in 

 the move ; others must be sown in place at all risks. One 

 seed-bed is required that can be left entirely alone for 

 (say) two years, except for just breaking with a hand- 

 fork and weeding, as some seeds germinate very slowly. 

 Where this is known to be the case, with large foreign 

 seeds it is well before sowing to soak them for twenty- 

 four hours in warm water and a little oil — or even to 

 puncture the hard skin, as with Cannas. For instance, 

 I shall certainly soak the seeds of the little Zucche, a 

 kind of Vegetable Marrow that I brought from Florence 

 last year, as it is a plant that in England has to do 

 much growth in a short time, and it is desirable to get it 

 well grown on in good time to plant out at the end of 

 May. The exact time of putting out must depend on 

 the season, and must be decidedly after that late May 

 frost which comes every year without fail, and which in 

 some years does gardens so much harm, though we all 

 know how this may be guarded against by a little pro- 

 tection. 



I think the multiplicity of nurserymen, small and 

 great, and the gardeners' sympathy with the trade, have 

 had much to do with the fact that the sowing of seeds, 

 except in the case of annuals, has gone so out of fash- 

 ion. No matter where I go, it is not one garden in a 

 hundred that has these permanent small nurseries for 

 seeds or even for cuttings, or a reserve garden as de- 

 scribed before. And yet I am sure many of the best 

 perennials cannot be grown at all in a light sandy soil 

 unless they are grown from seed on the spot, and a great 

 many more are only to be seen in real perfection if they 

 are treated as annuals or biennials. The growing of 

 seeds is a work which an amateur gardener can see to 

 himself — or, indeed, herself — and I am sure gardening is 



