64 
GENERAL TREATMENT OF THE GENUS PINUS. 
wants, they should be confined to a small pit or frame, from which all external 
atmospheric agents must be excluded, a trifling moisture being preserved by 
occasionally pouring a little water on the floor. This will be preferable to 
watering the soil, so long as that can be avoided ; and when the latter operation 
is indispensable, it may be cautiously performed. 
On the slightest inclination to development being detected, aerial humidity 
should be promptly suspended ; and by the time the seed-leaves have pierced the 
surface of the earth about three days, the young plants are instantly to be potted 
into the smallest sized pots, placing one specimen in each, and using the soil before 
mentioned. They may thereupon be transferred to a different frame, slightly 
shaded, and attentively observed for the succeeding fortnight ; afterwards gradu- 
ally exposing them to the open air by day, or during propitious weather, and 
closing the frame each night to guard them from cold and dews. 
In that stage of their advancement between the first potting and being 
thoroughly habituated to exposure, they are more delicate and susceptible of 
damage than at any other part of their existence ; this tenderness having reference 
principally to their contact with water. Of course, where heat is furnished, the 
liability to detriment is very much increased. Particular pains should, in conse- 
quence, be taken to have them so beneath the strictest supervision, that neither 
moisture nor temperature can reach them to any injurious extent. 
Similar care, and in all respects the same management, are needful till the 
plants are on the point of emitting their proper leaves, when they must at once 
be transplanted to the spot prepared for them. In the interim, they may very 
likely require shifting into larger pots, or the frame to be covered with mats in 
the winter, or other necessary tendance, which will naturally suggest itself, and 
need not here be particularized. If, again, the seed is not received till the autumn 
or winter, although it is better to commit it directly to the soil, it should not be 
in any way excited to germinate, but the sole endeavours of the cultivator 
restricted to keeping it alive, yet dormant, until more genial influences can be 
ensured. 
As a means of overcoming the difficulties opposed to the diffusion of this tribe 
by the total want of seeds consequent on the smallness of our specimens, and our 
intercourse with their native countries being so fluctuating, British skill has been 
brought to bear on the subject, and great numbers of the rarer kinds are now 
increased by grafting. It is much to be wished, however, that the leading 
members or patrons of the profession would rather specially appoint collectors to 
gather seeds, than perpetuate that system ; for grafted plants never flourish so 
healthfully, nor maintain their distinctive characters so well, as those produced by 
semination. The essentials to success in the grafting process are terminal shoots 
for scions, a practised operator, and a close frame in which to store the plants 
while the junction is being effected. It may be entered upon in the month of 
March. 
