100 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
holes stopped with corks or sheets of paper, may he used in 
place of bell-glasses ; but the best way will pay the best, 
especially in the case of amateurs who grow “good things,” 
and prize the seeds of choice subjects like gold-dust. We 
shall have to treat on seed-sowing and the management of 
seedling plants at length in a subsequent chapter, and there¬ 
fore, to avoid waste of space by repetition, shall say no more 
upon the subject here. As to the value of seed-saving and 
seed-sowing, however, we are bound to repeat that in the case of 
herbaceous plants, the matter is not of the highest importance. 
How absurd, for example, it would be for any one to save and 
sow seed of the common white arabis, when, by the simple 
process of division in autumn, the plants can be multiplied 
ad infinitum ! What a waste of time to wait and watch for 
seeds of the white lily, which only needs to be taken up and 
parted in August or September to fill the whole garden, no 
matter how large, in the course of a few years. It is worthy 
of remark, too, that, as a rule, the plants which produce abun¬ 
dance of seed are those that we prize the least; the free- 
seeding sorts being of secondary value as regards interest and 
beauty. 
The multiplication of herbaceous plants by cuttings and 
divisions, when either of these methods can be practised, is far 
preferable to raising them from seed. The cuttings should 
consist of new shoots of the season, nearly fall grown and just 
about to harden. Old and wiry shoots are of no use; very 
soft, sappy shoots are no use. Large cuttings, whether from 
old or young shoots, are no use. The mild heat of a half-spent 
hotbed is to be preferred to the strong heat in which 
bedding plants are struck in spring; but hardy herbaceous 
plants may be propagated in a strong heat, or a mild heat, or 
without heat, and the last mode is the best, generally speaking. 
In the case of a scarce and valuable plant, we must sometimes 
adopt extreme measures to save its life or to increase it 
rapidly ; but the best plants will be obtained from the well- 
managed cold-frame, and not from the hothouse. 
In multiplying by division, a time should be chosen when 
the plant is in what we may call a dividable state; but, in 
truth, it may be done at any season if the operator is some¬ 
what experienced, and can coax an insulted plant into a kindly 
temper by good frame or greenhouse management. When 
we meet with a scarce plant that we wish to possess, we 
