110 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS, 
seed produced. It will be advisable to fertilise the female 
flowers—which are easily distinguished by the incipient 
seed-pod at the base—with pollen taken from male flowers 
differing from them in colour. The seed-pods should be 
pinched off before the seeds begin to scatter, and being 
laid loosely in a clean box or glass dish, will soon ripen, 
and none of the seed will be lost. The seed is as fine as 
snuff, and in sowing it care should be taken not to cover 
it with soil at all. Prepare some shallow boxes or pans, 
with about three inches of light rich soil—say turfy loam, 
clean leaf-mould, and very old rotten hotbed manure in 
equal parts. Having sprinkled some sand over the surface 
and pressed it flat with a board, sprinkle the seed very 
thinly, and then cover with a sheet of common glass. 
The soil ought to be moist enough to need no ‘watering 
until the plants are up, but should water be needed, the 
boxes or pans must be immersed nearly to the top edge 
for an hour or two, and should then be removed. In a 
warm greenhouse or pit the seed will soon germinate, 
and the seed-boxes will present the pleasing appearance of 
hundreds of young begonias. 
The best time for sowing the seed is during February 
and March, as the young plants have the whole summer 
before them to complete their growth. Being carefully 
pricked out into other pans or boxes, and as soon as large 
enough separately potted, they will grow rapidly, and the 
whole of them will flower before the season is past. As 
they flower those of no merit should be destroyed; the 
best of them should be named or numbered ; and a few 
plants may be struck from cuttings of any decidedly good 
ones that flower early. 
The result of a season’s growth will be the formation of 
