SEEDS MUST BE EIPE. 243 



Chrysanthemum is a familiar instance of this. Such plants 

 seed readily if the flower heads are kept warm and dry; and it 

 is thus that the sterile Chrysanthemum has been made seedful; 

 that is to say, by growing it in a dry warm winter border, pro- 

 tected from showers by a roof of glass; or by using some 

 similar means of guarding it ; or by rearing it in a warm dry 

 climate. 



When seeds are freely produced, it is not altogether 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 gaining 

 seminal vigour. 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 prolonging the period of 

 maturation as much as is consistent with the health of the 

 fruit. 



It is a general rule that seedlings take after their parents, 

 an unhealthy 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 Eanunculuses, Anemones, 

 and similar flowers, will rarely yield double varieties, while 

 the seed 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 

 other substance of a similar kind, and to deprive it of water, 

 conditions necessary for its preservation: but, if a seed is 

 gathered before being ripe, these conditions are not secured ; 

 and, in proportion to the deficiency of the requisite elements 



n 2 



