OF SEED-SAVING. 175 



tlier a subject of indifference in what, way they are 

 saved, if it is desired that their progeny should be the 

 most perfect that can be obtained. Weak seeds 

 produce, weak plants, and therefore recourse should 

 be had, in all delicate cases, to artificial means for 

 giving vigour to the seed. In general, the cultivator 

 trusts to his eye for separating the plumpest and most 

 completely formed seeds; or to floating them in 

 water, selecting only the heavy grains that sink, and 

 rejecting all those which are buoyant enough to float. 

 But the energy of the vital principle in a seed may be, 

 undoubtedly, increased by abstracting neighbouring 

 fruits, by improving the general health of the parent 

 plant, by a full exposure of it to light, and by pro- 

 longing the period of maturation as much as is con- 

 sistent with the health of the fruit. It is a constant 

 rule that seedlings take after their parents, an unheal- 

 thy mother producing a diseased offspring, and a 

 vigorous parent yielding a healthy progeny in all 

 their minute gradations and modifications; and this is 

 so true, that, as florists very well know, semi-double 

 Ranunculi, Anemones, and similar flowers, will rarely 

 yield double varieties, while the seeds of the latter as 

 unfrequently give birth to semi-double degenerations. 

 Independently of these things, it is indispensable that 

 the seed of a plant, when saved, should be perfectly 

 ripe, if it is intended to be laid by for future sowing. 

 The effect of ripening is to load the seed with carbon 

 in the form of starch, or some such substance (102), 

 and to deprive it of water, conditions necessary for 

 its preservation ; but, if a seed is gathered before 



