Enlargement and experiment we must forego. Varieties and 
novelties in time of peace may be exciting by reason of their uncer- 
tainty. In time of war let us have peace through the certainty of 
conservation and aim only at repetition of our best. Within the 
reach of our hands lie the possibility of this, entailing little effort and 
no expense. 
See the seed-pod left by chance on your Columbine. It is ready 
to open and discharge its fresh black dots. Is the seed you used to 
buy half as good as this? What about your pansies blooming them- 
selves to death? Your sturdy Delphinium to which so many un- 
toward evils may happen before next summer? The special shade of 
Hollyhock which is so perfect in its present position? Is it not strange 
that these riches should ever be left ungarnered and that the supreme 
effort of the plant should be thrown out as rubbish? 
There are, of course, limitations in seed gathering. The bees 
will mix your true colors, and, expecting salmon-pink, you will exe- 
crate magenta. Choose, therefore, an isolated plant for your seed, 
one that grows at a little distance from the groups of varied colors. 
A properly conducted bee methodically finishes one group of flowers 
of one type and returns to the hive with his load before attacking 
another. To obviate this difficulty you can, of course, grow plants 
in groups of colors especially for seed. Even with these precautions 
some plants, such as Pyrethrum and Sweet William will revert to 
original and undesirable colors. 
Seeds of Gaillardia, Stokes Aster, Polemonium, all the Poppy and 
Dianthus families and Escholtzia, among many others can be gathered 
before August and should be sown at once. Those which ripen too 
late to permit of the seedlings becoming well rooted before the first 
of September, should be held until the late winter and started in the 
cold frame or hot bed. 
If you can refrain from cultivating in early Spring around your 
Delphinium, Columbine, Hollyhock and others you need not gather 
the seeds, for you will find the tiny plants at the feet of their mother 
before the trees are in leaf next Spring. 
Some seeds, such as Alyssum, can be left until even December to 
gather, when by cutting the tops you may winnow them over a paper. 
This is a hardy seed and can be sown very late with only slight cover- 
ing. 
Among flower lovers there is a disagreement on one point. Is it 
better to pick the seed pod before it is ripe, thus saving every seed 
from waste and finish the process in the sun? Or is it better to risk 
the loss of many seeds and let the parent plant perfect the process? 
