238 THE CEDAR. 
from the tree, nor do they discharge their seed, like other 
species of the Conifere, through the influence of sunshine. 
Unless they are gathered, they remain attached to the tree 
for many years, when the scales give way and the seeds are 
shed, leaving the axis of the cone adhering to the branch. 
The cones should be gathered before the beginning of 
April, when the seeds should be extracted and immediately 
sown. It is from cones, the growth of the Levant and of 
England, that the British nurserymen are supplied with seed, 
and no other method of propagation is in practice. Seeds 
are with difficulty extracted from fresh cones. The operation 
is performed by sawing off about half an inch of the bottom 
of each cone, which portion contains no seeds. A hole is 
then bored into the axis, which is split up by the driving of 
an iron wedge or spike. To facilitate the operation, the cone 
may be steeped in water for a few days, or buried in the 
ground for a few weeks, before they are manufactured. The 
number of sound seeds in a cone varies much in different 
trees, and is much influenced by the season. About fifty are 
of frequent occurrence ; and although one person can safely 
extract several thousand seeds in a day, yet nature appears to 
have made no provision for the rapid increase of the tree, to 
re-establish the forest overrun by King Solomon’s fourscore 
thousand hewers. The seeds should be sown in April, in 
light friable ground, and only placed about an inch apart. 
The covering should be about half an inch deep in the open 
ground. The young plants appear in breaking through the 
ground in about six weeks, when the advantage of close sow- 
ing is often apparent, from the ease with which the coty- 
ledons disturb and rise through the surface ; whereas, in thin 
sowing, when the ground becomes even slightly crusted or 
caked, a greater effort is necessary in the individual plant to 
get through, and the strongest only prevail. 
It is a common practice in nurseries to sow the seeds in 
heat under glass, and to pot off the young plants in June, 
when their cotyledons only are full grown. Others remove 
the plants when one year old into small pots, and shift them 
