RAISING SEEDLINGS. — GUNNEKA SCABRA. 
251 
and sometimes are, several double and re- 
markable. When this is the case, they should 
be carefully removed to a place far away from 
the single ones, and the seed saved, for in 
that case the next year's produce would con- 
sist of more double ones in proportion than 
there were before ; but if we are grow- 
ing them really for the sake of improving, 
the best plan is to mow down all the single 
ones directly, except only any that may happen 
to be remarkable for colour or size, or smooth 
edges, because, by destroying the bad we leave 
the good undisturbed ; whereas, if the best 
are removed, there is some chance ot" their 
being damaged, however careful we may be. 
Having, however, obtained something that we 
are pleased with, the next thing to consider 
is, how are we to propagate it ? The safest 
way is to layer it, the same as we should a 
carnation ; notch the under side of the shoot 
a little, and peg it down just under the sur- 
face of the earth, and, when all the shoots are 
so pegged down, let them be gently watered 
and left to root. In September they will be 
found rooted well, and may be cut off with 
their roots to them, and be numbered and 
planted out in proper beds to bloom the next 
season ; but omit not to sow the seed saved 
from these best sorts, for when once you pass 
a certain point in the way of improvement, 
you keep going ahead until you are tired, 
or careless, or indifferent. The best month 
for sowing seed is June ; they then come to 
a good size for planting out, so as to get well 
established before the winter sets in, and do 
not get too forward to flower well in their 
season. It is worth any one asking to see 
the double Sweet- Williams at Hampton 
Court, unless they have got tired of propa- 
cratin^ them. 
THE GRATIFICATION DERIVED FROM 
RAISING SEEDLINGS. 
All nature has an inclination to vaiy ; 
even the acorn from the evergreen oak, which 
we shall take for our first subject, yields us 
fifty differently formed leaves, although we 
could see no difference in the seed. If Ave 
sow a thousand acorns from the evergreen 
oak, we shall not have two plants with foliage 
strictly alike, but many will differ so much 
that they far more nearly resemble holly than 
oak ; we have seen a number of varieties so 
striking, that we have determined on working 
each distinctly and separately, and so perpe- 
tuating about ten of the oddest-looking leaves 
we ever saw. There is hardly anything more 
gratifying, certainly nothing more interesting, 
than tiie sowing of seeds, if we but take the 
pains to examine the results. We have seen 
a seedling oak with round leaves, with prickles 
all round, like those of the holly, but in form, 
the leaf is as unlike both oak and holly as if 
it were a separate genus. In a quantity of 
seedling berberries there is a most extraor- 
dinary diversity of form and colour. In a 
patch of laburnums some of the racemes of 
flowers are as long again as others ; in half 
a dozen walnut trees not two bear nuts alike ; 
and if we were to watch any thing that comes 
from seed, we should often discover a thing 
worth saving, but which, for want of obser- 
vation, is lost altogether. Nobody ought to 
be careless about things raised from seed ; we 
once picked out half a dozen Rhododendrons 
from a lot of seedling Catawbiense, and they 
proved to be worth grafting, and are now 
figuring among the most popular by some 
half-dozen names. We have not alluded 
to seed raised by crossing or artificial impreg- 
nation, but raised in the ordinary way ; and 
if that will, as we know it will, yield great 
variety occasionally, how much more would 
seed do so when saved from particular sorts 
associated together for the purpose, and those 
of so opposite a character as to present every 
charm ? We wish all who sow seed would 
look more to the result. 
GUNNERA SCABRA. 
When M. Feuillee, sen.,* at the beginning 
of the 18th century, proclaimed the pharma- 
ceutic, economical, and culinary qualities of a 
plant, called Panke, which the Chilians used 
in these three respects, he did not doubt but 
that his voice would not be heard, and that his 
efforts to introduce the culture of so valuable a 
plant into his country would not be successful. 
Such has been the fate of all the great men 
who have made known their inventions 'to the 
world. Inattention and disregard were, for 
some time at least, the rewards of Watt, Ful- 
ton, and a hundred more ; and Parmentier 
himself was unheeded when he made known 
the potato. Thanks to the efforts of one of 
the principal horticulturists of the Continent, 
the Panke is at length introduced and culti- 
vated in Europe, and society will be able to 
derive the benefits which the Chilians them- 
selves obtained from it. 
Gunnera chilensis, or €r. scabra,' is a plant 
which, although stemless, grows to a great 
size. In general, its habit is that of liheicm 
palmatum, but it is much fuller and larger, 
and would make a very ornamental plant for 
the flower-garden or- pleasure-ground. It 
grows with a roundish, very thick rhizoma, 
the petioles of the leaves being about four feet 
* Louis FeuiUSe, a monk, was sent by the order of 
Louis XIV. several voyages to the Aatilles, Chili, 
Peru, &c. He discovered a great many useful plants. 
He was born in 1660, and died in 1732. 
