GROWING THE GIANT VICTORIAS I45 



Keeping the seed very moist, preferably in 

 water of not less than 60° F., is essential to 

 their vitality; and it is to the neglect or 

 ignorance of this little detail that the failures 

 incident to the first attempts to introduce the 

 Victoria must be ascribed. The seed should 

 be procured and sown four months before the 

 time of planting out, that is to say, February 

 first or even earlier. It can be sown at once, 

 using for this purpose a pan or pot three- 

 fourths full of heavy loam, depositing the 

 seeds on top of the soil. The pot must now 

 be placed in a tank in the greenhouse with 

 about three inches of water over the top of the 

 seed bed. Seed of regia requires a tem- 

 perature of about 85-90° F., to obtain which 

 a device similar to the one used for raising 

 the temperature in the tank in which the seed 

 of tropical nymphaeas is germinating, can 

 be used. For the seed of Cruziana so high a 

 temperature is injurious, 60° to 70° F. being 

 sufficient. 



Germination may take place in a week or 

 ten days, but the greater number of the seeds 



