hybrid Calceolarias with the success which has at- 
tended Mr. Williams; we are therefore gratified in 
the opportunity of laying before our friends a de- 
scription of his practice. He recommends that 
florists who wish to originate beautiful varieties of 
Calceolaria should take the species Fothergilli as 
the one to yield them seed ; whose flowers should 
be fertilized by pollen of the most approved shrubby 
species- Seed is thus easily obtained, but very many 
persons fail in their endeavour to make it vegetate. 
Mr. Williams, in the true spirit of liberality, desirous 
that all may benefit by his experience and inde- 
fatigable industry, enables us to give the following 
directions. The seeds should be sown in March, 
in shallow pans of peat, the peat being sifted and 
made very fine on the top, but left in a coarser 
state underneath. The surface should be gently 
pressed to make it quite smooth, the seeds sown 
thereon, and as much fine sand sprinkled over it as 
will barely cover the seeds, or just enough to keep 
them in place. A careful watering should then be 
given with a fine syringe, and the pans placed in a 
cold frame. Here occasional watering will be re- 
quisite, and shade from the sun in warm weather. 
With this treatment every good seed will vegetate; 
but if they are submitted to heat, the greater por- 
tion will perish. “ By this method,” says Mr. Wil- 
liams, “from my first sowing of Calceolaria seed in 
183o, I had twenty thousand good plants, and nearly 
as many from the second.” We can bear testimony 
to the most splendid varieties having originated at 
Oldford ; many which at first sight would not be 
recognized as belonging to any known species. 
