194 



The ground having thus been duly prepared, is parcelled out into 

 quadrilateral spaces, bounded severally by raised borders, and provided 

 with small lateral channels serving to convey and distribute the water 

 for irrigation over all the surface of the seedplot. 



Although in some instances the Sicilian gardeners have preferred to 

 stock their nurseries with young slips, or with layers, the general in- 

 feriority of these two methods to the now prevailing system of raising 

 trees from seeds is so universally acknowledged that they are only 

 adopted at present by those laudatores temporis acti, who through pre- 

 judice, or in the hopes of earlier returns, sacrifice the permanent and 

 sure advantages of raising from seed. The long and vigorous lease of 

 life enjoyed by plants generated from seed, their consequent relative 

 exemption from those numerous ailments and diseases which have of 

 late years afflicted the orange and lemon trees of Sicily and of the Ca- 

 labrias, are so many circumstances which explain the persistently abun- 

 dant and valuable crops yielded by the offspring of seed, as contrasted 

 with those produced by trees derived from slips, and this constant supe- 

 riority in yield of the seed-grown trees over the slip-grown ones far 

 outweighs the precarious advantages of a rapid but often rank growth 

 of a precocious but usually sickly crop, ending always in a premature 

 decay. 



The best seed is considered to be that derived from the " citrus 

 bigaradia," or bitter orange, whose exceptional vigour will always afford 

 the fairest hopes of a fine and healthy progeny. Even a 4-year sapling 

 will endure repeated graftings and other operations, which it would be 

 most dangerous to attempt on plants born of other seed, or derived 

 from slips. The bud or scion engrafted on the citrus bigaradia im- 

 parts, I am told, all the flavour inherent to the particular variety 

 whence the graft is taken to the stock without impairing its native 

 vigour. 



The most favourable season for putting the seed into the ground is 

 spring, particularly the Vwo months of March and April. The seeds 

 are often previously soaked in water ere they be consigned to the soil, 

 which process, in the opinion of many cultivators, produces a turgidity 

 favourable to the greater development of the plumules. The seeds are 

 sown broadcast, and then covered over to the depth of about 1 inch. 

 The earth in immediate contact with the seeds, whether underlaying or 

 overlaying them, should be finely divided and then mixed with pulve- 

 rised manure ; moreover should the soil be of clayey nature, it will be 

 necessary to import some loose, friable earth to lay between the tenaci- 

 ous, impermeable clay, and the seeds which might otherwise suffer from 

 the excessive moisture stored up in the marl or clay, and generally re- 

 tained by all argillaceous earths. As soon as the seed-plot is sown, it 

 •is plentifully and frequently watered during the whole summer — that is 

 for Sicily — often up to the middle of October, when the weekly irriga- 

 tions are only interrupted by the advent of the first autumnal rains. 



Nurseries. 



The sf)ot selected for a nursery should lie when practicable, in a 

 sunny situation, a condition hardly less important to the prosperity of 

 the tender plants than are the good quality and richness of the soil. 

 The ground is prepared for the reception of the seedlings by a first 



