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XXXIX. Upon raising Coniferous Plants from Seed. By Mr. 

 George Gordon, Under Gardener, in the Hardy Department 

 of the Society's Garden. 



Read December 3, 1839. 



The Society having received and distributed a considerable 

 quantity of seeds of several valuable and new species of Pinus, 

 from their collector in Mexico, I am induced to believe that the 

 following account of the manner of raising Coniferous Plants in 

 the Society's Garden may be worth knowing ; especially as some 

 eminent cultivators of such plants have failed in raising several 

 of them, although none of the species of which seeds were dis- 

 tributed have failed in the garden of the Society. 



Every one who has had any experience in raising seedling Pines, 

 especially those belonging to the section of Pinus proper, must 

 be well aware that they are extremely subject to damping off, just 

 above the ground, shortly after they have come up, and generally 

 when they are about four or five days old, more particularly if it is 

 wet weather at the time ; and it then frequently happens that not a 

 single plant is saved, although every seed should have vegetated. 

 Having myself known the great difficulty of preserving such plants, 

 I was induced to try various experiments in the hope of rinding a 

 remedy for the evil. I fully tried the effect of sowing the seeds 

 in various mixtures of Peat, Sand and Loam, mixed in various 

 proportions from nearly all Sand, to nearly all Peat, or Loam 

 as well as Sand, Loam and Peat, separately, and also Leaf Mould, 

 a soil strongly recommended by some, but in all respects as bad 

 as Peat itself. Different depths too were tried, from laying the 

 seeds on the surface of the earth, to covering them three-fourths 



