THE FOLYANTKUS. 71 



August, but may be performed with more or less success 

 at any season. A ready mode of raising a stock is to 

 sow seeds in pans of light rich soil, and to keep them in a 

 frame, or a shady and rather damp place, until the plants 

 appear. Tlie seed is very capricious in its behaviour, for if 

 sown when quite fresh and kept damj) and dark, it will 

 sprout up in ten or twelve days ; but old seed will remain 

 dormant for months, i)erha23s even for a year, and then grow 

 freely and produce nice healthy jdants. It is a point of 

 very great importance to cover the seed with the thinnest 

 possible dusting of fine soil, and it is advisable to cover the 

 seed pan with a sheet of paper or a sprinkling of moss, 

 which, of course, must be removed when the tender green 

 herb appears. 



There are some brilliant strains in cultivation as bedding 

 plants, and they have been employed with singular effect in 

 the London parks. These are all raised from seed, and when 

 the flowering is over the plants are destroyed ; thus it be- 

 comes necessary to save seed every year from the best plants, 

 and to have successive batches of seedlings to maintain the 

 annual display. 



On dry sandy soils, and in hot arid situations, the 

 polyanthus is comparatively worthless. It is a flower of 

 the valleys, and loves comfort, but cold is never so harmful 

 to it as heat, and in any case where the plant is tried by 

 drought or heat it should be aided by shading and sys- 

 tematic watering. 



The primrose, polyanthus, oxlip, and cowslip are so 

 nearly related that it is a difficult matter to define them 

 nicely; bat the definition is of little consequence to the lover 

 of flowers, however important it may be to such as " allium 

 call their onions and their leeks." Let us, however, be 



