THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 25. 
38 
vegetating. It seems to follow, therefore, that if it be 
found one year that the Lest potato crop was obtained 
by planting on the 4th of November, being the first 
day the gooseberry-leaves had all fallen, and that the 
following year the leaves of the same tree did not 
fall until the 20th of November, that in such case 
the potato planting ought until then to be delayed, 
for, as M. Barck observes, “ No one can deny but 
that the same influences which bring forth the leaves 
of trees will also make grain vegetate; and no one 
can justly assert that a premature sowing will always 
and everywhere accelerate a ripe harvest.” 
We beg leave to explain that our illustration by 
potato planting is a mere assumption, and that we do 
not intend to advance that the fall of the leaf of the 
gooseberry and potato planting ought to be simulta¬ 
neous : we only throw out the suggestion for others 
to confirm or to refute by observation and experiment, 
adding only thus much, that Mr. Stillingflect, one of 
the most careful of Nature’s observers, says, that in 
his time “ the prudent gardener never ventured to 
put his greenhouse plants out until the mulberry 
leaf was of a certain growth.” 
Returning to the consideration of the requisites 
necessary for the healthy germination of seed, we 
next may observe, that as no seed will germinate 
without a certain degree of heat is present, so also 
does it require that a certain quantity of water be in 
contact with its outer skin or integument, and this is 
required not only to soften this covering, and thus 
permit the enlargement of the cotyledons (seed lobes) 
always preceding germination, but also to afford that 
water to the internal components of the seed, without 
which the chemical changes necessary for the nutri¬ 
ment of the embryo plant will not take place. 
Pure water, or some other liquid of which it is a 
large constituent, is absolutely necessary; no other 
fluid will advance germination a single stage. The 
quantity of water, necessary to be present before 
germination will proceed, varies much. The seeds of 
some aquatic plants reqxure to be completely and con¬ 
stantly submerged in water; others, natives of dry 
soils and warm climates, will germinate if merely 
exposed to a damp atmosphere, of which the Spanish 
and Horse chesnut afford ready examples; but the 
far larger majority of seeds require and germinate 
most healthily in contact with that degree of mois¬ 
ture which a fertile soil retains only by its chemical 
and capillary attraction. If the soil be inefficiently 
drained, and there consequently, a superfluity of 
stagnant water, the seeds either decay without ger¬ 
minating, or germinate unhealthily. This arises 
neither merely from its keeping them in an ungenial 
temperature, nor only from the usual tendency of 
excessive moisture to promote putrefaction; but also 
because the vegetable decomposing matters in a soil, 
where water is superabundant, give out carburetted- 
hydrogen with acetic and gallic acids—compounds 
unfavourable to the vegetation of most cultivated 
plants, whilst the evolution of carbonic acid and 
ammonia is prevented, which two bodies are benifi- 
cial to the embryo plant. 
We are reminded by the calendar to-day of one of 
our favourite bulbous flowers, the Tigridia ravonia, 
of which there are two or three forms in the seed 
shops; they are called species by some, and are as 
much entitled to such distinction as many others. 
The second form of the Tigridia is more dwarf than 
the old one, and orange yellow where the old one is 
red; the beautiful markings are much the same in 
both kinds. The name of this second species is 
Tigridia conchiflora, or shell flowered ; and the third 
form of this plant is called “ stiperba,” though not so 
handsome as the other two; it is more in the way of 
the old Tigridia, with less brilliant colours, and in 
stature is intermediate between the two. We also 
learn from some excellent papers by Dr. Me Lean, in 
late numbers of the “Elorist and Garden Miscellany,” 
that he has succeeded in raising cross seedlings be¬ 
tween these tigridias, or tiger flowers. We hope this 
may be so, and we should very much wish to hear of 
others following his example; perhaps our coadjutor, 
Mr. Beaton, will enter the lists here. He has said 
that these tigridias require some such treatment as 
he described for the Tuberose, and it is for this rea¬ 
son that we now more particularly allude to them, as 
we are assured that not one out of a hundred succeed 
in keeping all their bulbs of them over the winter. 
This failure is caused by taking them up too early in 
the autumn. These bulbs do not ripen in our cli¬ 
mate by the time they are overtaken by the early 
frosts; nor do they require a lengthened period of rest 
like many other bulbs. Therefore, what we woidd 
recommend for them is this, that they should be left 
in the ground till about the commencement of the 
new year, with dry leaves, or some kind of thatch, to 
keep the earth about them from freezing, then to take 
them up and dry them thoroughly and to pot them, 
about the middle of February, three in a 5-inch pot. 
They should then be placed in a warm situation, 
such as a cucumber bed, till their leaves are well up 
above the soil, then to be removed to a cool green¬ 
house, pit, or window, till the spring frosts are over. 
They may be planted out then in beds, or borders, 
with the balls entire, and the surface of the balls to 
be an inch or so below that of the bed. 
THE ERUIT- GARDEN. 
The Strawberry In-doors. —We are now too late 
to offer advice about the culture of the plants as a 
preparatory step to their successful forcing; indeed, 
this part of the ground has been gone over in pre¬ 
vious numbers in another department of The Cot¬ 
tage Gardener. As, however, practices slightly 
differ, we shall, in due time, have a good deal to say 
about it; for no mode of forcing can prove successful 
with bad plants which have been improperly treated. 
