hut it is not proper to keep thefe longer than four or 
five years, notwithstanding they will grow at eight 
or nine years old ; becaufe when the feeds are too old, 
the plants will be weak, and the fruit which they 
produce will be fmall. 
Amaranthus, or Flower-gentle. 
Cabbage, fee Brafiica. 
Cedar of Libanus, fee Larix, if kept in the Cones. 
Cucumber, fee Cucumis. 
Gourd, fee Cucurbita. 
Lettuce, fee Lactuca. 
Melon, fee Melo. 
Pinus, the Pine-tree, if kept in the cones. 
Pumpion, fee Pepo. 
Savoy, fee Brafiica. 
Simnel, or Squafh, fee Cucurbita. 
Water Melon, fee Anguria. 
The following is a lift of fuch Seeds as will frequently 
remain in the earth a whole year, efpecially if they 
are fown in the fpring ; fo that whenever the plants 
do not come up the firft year, the ground fhould 
remain undifturbed till the following fpring (but 
muft be kept clear from weeds) when the plants will 
come up. 
Adonis, or Flos Adonis. 
Alaternus. 
Alexanders, fee Smyrnium. 
Angelica. 
Corn-failad, fee Valerianella. 
Fennel, fee Foeniculum. 
Fraxinella, or White Dittany, fee Didamnus. 
Golden-rod, fee Solidago. 
Gromwel, or Gramil, fee Lithofpermum, 
Hare’s-ear, ? fee Bupleurum. 
Hartwort, 5 r 
Hawthorn, fee Mefpilus. 
Hog’s-fennel, fee Peucedanum. 
Holly, fee Ilex. 
Juniper, fee Juniperus. 
Laferwort, fee Laferpitium. 
Lovage, fee Ligufticum. 
Maple, fee Acer. 
Mafterwort, fee Aftrantia. 
Mercury, fee .Mercurialis. 
Moly. 
Piony, fee P^onia. 
Sefeli, or Se’rmountain, fee Siler. 
Spignel, fee Meum. 
Star wort, fee After. 
Stavefacre, fee Delphinium. 
Turnfole, fee Heliotropium. 
Yew, feeTaxus. 
If the feeds mentioned in this lift are fown foon after 
they are ripe, many of the forts will come up the 
following fpring •, but whenever they fail fo to do, 
there will be no danger of their growing the following 
year, provided the Seeds were good, therefore people 
fhould not defpair of them the firft year. Moft of 
the umbelliferous plants have this property of remain- 
ing in the ground feveral months, and fometimes a 
whole year, before the plants appear ; therefore they 
fhould be managed accordingly, ^ by lowing their 
feeds on a border, which can be buffered to remain 
undifturbed till the plants come up. There are fome 
particular forts of feeds, which I have known remain 
in the ground eighteen months, and fometimes two 
years, after which time the plants have come up very 
well: of thefe forts are the Morina, Tribulus ter- 
reftris, Stavefacre, Mercury, and fome others ; but 
as they do not conftantly remain fo long in the 
ground, there can be no certainty of the time when 
the plants will appear. 
The rules here laid down, concerning the length of 
time which feeds may be kept out of the ground and 
prove good, will in general be found true •, being 
drawn up from feveral years experience, having taken 
S E E 
notes every year from the times of fowing great va- 
rieties of feeds, to the appearance of the plants above 
ground. And in this I have obferved fuch oddnefs in 
the growth of feeds, as is not to be accounted for ; 
as that of fowing feeds of the fame plant for two or 
three years fucceffively, and not having had one plant 
arife ; and the fourth year, from the remaining part of 
the feeds, I have had fome plants come up, notwith- 
ftanding the age of the Seeds. At other times it has 
happened, that fome Seeds have grown the fame 
fpring they were fown, and a great part of them 
have remained in the ground till the following au- 
tumn, when the plants have come up, fo that there 
have been two different crops from the fame lowing. 
I have alfo tried many experiments in keeping of 
Seeds, and find the beft method to preferve them 
good is, to keep them in a moderate temperature of 
warmth, where they may not fuffer from any incle- 
mencies in the outward air, nor have too much 
warmth, which will exhale the moifture too freely, 
and caufe the Seeds to decay fooner than they other- 
wife would do. This is well known to moft people 
who cultivate Melons, who, when their Seeds are 
new, which would occafion the plants being too vi- 
gorous, and therefore not fo fruitful, put them into 
the inner pocket of their breeches, which are in can- 
ftant wear, where they keep them for fix weeks or 
two months before they fow them, which will weaken 
the feeds as much as two years longer keeping them 
in the ordinary way. 
All forts of Seeds will keep much longer in their 
pods, or outer coverings, where they can be thus pre- 
l'erved ; becaufe the covering not only preferves them 
from the injuries of the outward air, but if the Seeds 
are not feparated from them, they fupply them with 
nourifhment, and thereby keep them plump and fair. 
But the Seeds of all foft fruits, fuch as Cucumbers, 
Melons, &c. muft be cleanfed from the fruit and 
mucilage which furrounds them, otherwife the rot- 
ting of thefe parts will corrupt and decay the Seeds in 
a ihort time. 
When Seeds are gathered, it fhould always be done 
in dry weather, when there is no moifture upon them v 
and then they fhould be hung up in bags (efpecially 
thofe which vermin eat) in a dry room ; in which fitu- 
ation they will keep longer than if they were clofely 
fhut up, and the air excluded from them. 
There are but few people who are curious enough in 
having their Seeds ; fome, for want of judgment, not 
diftinguifhing the beft plants of their kinds, to let 
them grow for feeds ; and others, out of covetoufnefs 
to fave a great quantity of feeds, frequently let a 
whole fpot of ground, filled with any particular fort 
of plants run up to feed, fo that the good andTad 
plants are faved indifferently, which is the occafion 
of the general cpmplaint of the badnefs of the Seeds 
which are commonly vended, and is what the dealers 
in Seeds fhould endeavour to remedy. 
There is a common method of trying the goodnefs of 
many forts of Seeds, which is, by putting them in wa- 
ter, and thofe of them which fink to the bottom are 
efteemed good, but what fwirn on the furface are re- 
jeded as good for little; but this will not hold in 
many forts, for I have faved the Seeds of Melons, 
which have floated on the furface of the water when 
they were wafhed from the pulp, and after keeping 
them two years, they have grown well ; but the Me- 
lons produced on thefe plants were not fo thick 
flefhed, as thofe which were produced from heavy Seeds 
of the fame Melon. The lightnefs of many forts of 
Seeds, I apprehend, may be owing to their not having 
been fufficiently impregnated by the farina foecun- 
dans ; which is frequently the cafe with thofe plants 
that are kept in ftoves, or under frames, where the ex- 
ternal air is often too much excluded from them, which 
may be abfolutely neceflary to the conveying of the 
farina in fubftance, or the gentle effluvia thereof, to 
the uterine cells ; and this more particularly may be 
the cafe, in thofe forts which are male and female 
in different plants ; or where the male flov/ers grow 
O f 
