THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY BULBS AND PLANTS. 



215 



theory nor invention, it is simply my experience ; and I shall feel 

 well rewarded if anyhow I have thus been able to contribute to 

 the general knowledge of plant cultivation. 



Discussion. 



Mr. James Douglas said it was very important that seeds 

 should be sown when ripe. Sometimes, however, it was very 

 difficult to save them. He had found it a good plan to put some 

 fine soil round the base of the plants, and when the seeds dropped, 

 to cover them, after which the seedlings would come up naturally 

 all round the parent plant in due course. The seeds of the 

 Primula family should be sown directly they were ripe, otherwise 

 the vitality in them diminished, and the result was weakly seed- 

 lings. The Himalayan species of Primula must be raised every 

 year, because the old plants after flowering were in the habit of 

 dying. It wa3 the same with Alpine Primulas. If seeds of these 

 latter are sown at once it will be found that they will remain 

 in the soil for three, four, or even six months, and occasion- 

 ally twelve months, before they germinate. 



Mr. E. H. Jenkins, in regard to the sowing of seeds, said he 

 could not quite agree either with Mr. Max Leichtlin or with Mr. 

 Douglas as to sowing seeds as soon as they were ripe, except in 

 the case of bulbous plants. The seeds of other plants he had 

 kept for two or three years before sowing them, and he found 

 after such a length of time that they germinated freely. In 

 regard to Primulas, he remembered keeping seeds for seven years, 

 after which he sowed them, and within three weeks obtained as 

 many as 400 seedlings, but many of these were destroyed by damp. 

 The seeds of Himalayan Primulas, however, should be sown 

 as soon as they are ripe. There was one important point omitted 

 from Mr. Max Leichtlin's paper, namely, covering the seeds with 

 soil. When sown they should be put in a dark spot and stood 

 in a pan of water until they germinate. He preferred this 

 method of procedure, as it was then unnecessary to disturb the 

 seeds by watering them with a rose pot. He also fully endorsed 

 the lecturer's remarks as to planting the seeds of bulbous plants 

 deeply. Instead, however, of sowing them in open beds, so 

 that birds, cats, or other animals might be able to destroy them, 

 lie was in favour of sowing them in pans, and covering them 



