GLENN Y ON THE CALCEOLARIA. 
101 
of the plants, so must the pots be increased in 
size as fast as the roots fill up the old ones ; 
and a continuance of watering, giving air, and 
shading, will bring them to perfection. 
SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS. 
The plants destined for seeding should be 
placed together in the open ground, or in a pit 
which can be altogether uncovered when neces- 
sary. If it be intended to fertilize one particu- 
lar kind with another, take a camel's hair pen- 
cil, to collect the dust of the one, and brush the 
pistil of the other with the camel's hair pencil, 
and the dust will stick to the female organ of 
the plant ; but it is far better to place such as 
are considered good together in one place, and 
let them fertilize themselves. Cover them 
against excessive rains, because they are un- 
favourable to the seeding of anything, but in 
an ordinary season they will seed plentifully ; 
and all that is necessary is to place none for 
seed that have not any distinct characters, and 
very desirable ones, so that any kind of mix- 
ture may bring two good properties together in 
one flower, which are at the beginning in two 
separate ones. The seed must be gathered 
carefully as it approaches ripeness, and the 
pods be placed in a paper under cover, where 
it will not be prematurely laid by in a damp 
or unripe state. It is better to gather it before 
it actually turns brown, because it ripens as 
"veil for a week on the stems cut off, when 
race it is full grown, as it would on the plant. 
When once dried well it may be sowed in 
pans or boxes or large-mouthed pots, thinly 
and evenly, and be placed in the greenhouse, 
or in the pit, and covered with a bell glass 
until it comes up ; providing at all times for 
sufficient moisture to prevent the seed from 
drying again after having swelled. It should 
also be shaded from the heat of the sun. Upon 
the whole, the seed, when sown, would be better 
in a greenhouse, covered however, with a hand 
or bell glass, and kept merely a little moistened 
by watering with a very fine rose or a patent 
syringe, for the water should fall in very fine 
particles like dew, as the seed would be dis- 
placed by it. When the seeds come up they 
should be carefully shaded, and the glass 
should be taken off by day, and put on again at 
night. A simple and effective shade is to 
merely cover the side of the glass next the sun 
with a piece of paper ; it keeps off the bright 
and burning heat without materially affecting 
the light. When the plants fairly set off grow- 
ing, the bell or hand glass may be removed 
altogether ; and as soon as the plants are large 
enough to handle, they may be pricked out, 
in wide-mouthed pots, an inch apart, beginning 
a row close to the edge and working inwards ; 
a pot will hold a good many plants this way. 
After a very gentle watering with a fine rose or 
syringe, they should be covered with a glass 
and placed within sight near the window in 
the greenhouse, or in the pit ; the glass must 
be kept over them till they have fairly estab- 
lished themselves, when it may be taken off, 
and they may grow until they pretty well 
touch each other. When they have become 
strong, and the foliage nearly covers the pot, 
they may be placed one each in the large sixty 
size pots, and be set in a frame, and after 
watering them, to settle the compost about their 
roots, they may be shut up close for a day or 
two ; they must be now shaded from the 
violent heat of the sun for a while, but when 
they have once got hold again, and established 
their roots, all the care required is to see 
they are well and frequently watered in hot 
weather. They will show their habits very 
early, and if we were growing them we should 
throw away all that showed they were her- 
baceous, for to say the truth, we do not value 
them more than we should a single pink or a 
double polyanthus. If the pots fill with roots 
towards the winter time, the changing to 
larger ones had better be deferred to the period 
at which they begin to grow again, as they 
can hardly be kept better than at rest during 
the severe weather— if there be any. As the 
early spring approaches, they may be all 
shifted into 48 sized pots ; or if there are more 
than can be conveniently grown in pots, they 
may be held back, or a portion of the least 
promising habits may be held back, to bed 
out or put in the borders. The treatment, in 
short, of the seedling plants when once they 
have been raised, up to the filling of the small 
pots, may be assimilated to that already given 
for other plants. 
SELECTING FROM SEEDLINGS. 
We cannot do better than refer the reader 
back to the instructions for the choice of plants 
when in flower ; for as he would pick from the 
stock of others for his own garden, so ought he 
to select from the stock of seedlings such as 
are worth cultivation, and throw or give all 
the rest away. Indeed, as the flowers come 
out, all that are good for nothing should be 
cast out the instant they are discovered, that 
they may not spoil the seed of the better ones 
by inoculation. 
TREATMENT OF PLANTS AFTER BLOOM. 
The branches should be cut back a little into 
form, the useless or thin wiry shoots cut out, 
the plants cleansed, the top surface of the com- 
post stirred and thrown out, and a fresh top- 
dressing put on. They may then stand in 
their frames, receiving pretty nearly all the 
weather, except the most violent of the rains 
and east winds, until September, when they 
must be deprived of more wet than is absolutely 
