OF SEED-SAVING. 169 



nation, without growing, is very remarkable, and 

 inexplicable upon any known principle. If the Haw- 

 thorn be sown immediately after the seeds are ripe, a 

 part will appear as plants the next spring ; a larger 

 number the second year ; and stragglers, sometimes 

 in considerable numbers, even in the third and fourth 

 seasons. Seeds of the genera Ribes, Berberis, and 

 Paeonia, have a similar habit. M. Savi is related by 

 De Candolle to have had, for more than ten years, a 

 crop of Tobacco from one original sowing ; the young 

 plants having been destroyed yearly, without being 

 allowed to form their seed. This matter does not, 

 perhaps, concern the theory of horticulture, for 

 theory is incapable of explaining it ; but it is a fact 

 that it is useful to know, because it may prevent still 

 living seeds from being thrown away, under the idea 

 that, as they did not grow the first year, they will 

 never grow at all. 



CHAPTER VI. 



OF SEED-SAVING. 



The maturation of the seed being a vital action 

 indispensable to the perpetuation of a species, is, in 

 wild plants, guarded from interruption by so many 

 wise precautions, that no artificial assistance is requir- 

 ed in the process ; but in gardens, where plants, are 

 often enfeebled by domestication, or exposed to con- 



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