THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
seeds that are supposed to be old. When placed in soil that 
is adhesive and wet seeds often perish, because they are so 
coated as to be excluded from air and its oxygen, without 
which the embryo, even if stimulated into action, cannot 
live. Hence farmers and gardeners choose a fine dry sur¬ 
face for sowing seeds. If sown in a wet tilth many of the 
seeds would be clogged up from air. Future rains and 
waterings have nothing of this clogging effect, because they 
pass through the soil and take air with them. 
Comparative Darkness is also necessary in practice. 
Some experimenters have sown some seeds on wet woollen 
cloths full in the sun, and thence inferred that neither 
earth nor darkness was necessary. They have also alluded 
to small seeds that sow themselves, frequently too freely, and 
to the spores of Ferns, &c., that need no covering; but 
even in the case of these small seeds they vegetate best in 
shady places, and, if examined, it will be found that most of 
their surface is embedded, whilst myriads are dried up from 
exposure, and never vegetate at all. 
Just as in the case of the barley, a healthy germination 
depends on the hard matter of the seed being changed into 
one of a soft, mucilaginous character, whilst the action of 
the sun and free admission of air have the tendency to make 
the hard matter still more indurated ; in other words, to 
concentrate still more its carbon. Hence an old seed, with 
i its vital powers still existent, requires more time to ger¬ 
minate than a younger seed. Hence, again, of two seeds 
1 gathered from the same plant, say two Peas, the one quite 
hard, the other comparatively soft and sweetish, though per¬ 
fect, the hard one will be the best for keeping ; but if sown 
together the soft one will germinate much the sooner, 
because it has hardly lost its sweet, mucilaginous character; 
whilst the hard one must so far lose time in getting back to 
that soft, sweetish condition with which the other would 
start at once. In such a supposititious case the softish Pea 
would require much less moisture for germination than the 
hard one. The whole matter would be much simplified did 
we keep in mind that before seeds germinate freely they 
must be brought back to the soft, mucilaginous condition in 
which they were before they became thoroughly ripened in 
the seed vessel. Exposure to the sun is the greatest enemy 
to this softening. 
The covering or shading of seeds we therefore consider to 
be a matter of importance in practice. The depth of that 
covering must ever be proportioned to the size of the seeds 
and the closeness or openness of the soil used for covering. 
A good general rule is to cover the seeds only to the thick¬ 
ness of their own diameter. Yery small dust-like seed 
should only be covered by dust as fine, or, what is generally 
better, sown and slightly pressed on a damp surface, and 
shaded from the sun and protected from free access to 
a dry air until the seedlings were fairly up. 
The soil used for sowing seeds in artificial circumstances 
should be light and sandy in preference to being close and 
adhesive. If very sandy, however, it will not retain enough 
of moisture ; if there is too much clayey loam in it, it will 
retain too much ; and, when at all wet, air will not get into 
it so freely as it ought to do. Such sandy loam as was 
recommended for potting will do very well, with a consi¬ 
derable quantity of sand added. A little heath soil will also 
be an advantage, and so would a little fine, decomposed leaf 
mould. For want of these a little charcoal powdered rather 
roughly will be an acquisition. Many other things have been 
used for accelerating vegetation, but with little or no ultimate 
advantage in the case of healthy seeds. 
Failures with amateurs in raising plants from seeds in 
their windows have chiefly proceeded from sowing in soil 
that was too wet or too dry, from impei’fect drainage, from 
placing the seeds too deep, or from filling the pot so full of 
soil, and sowing them so near the surface, that the little 
things were either scorched with drought or were washed 
away by a deluge from the water-can. All seeds sown in 
pots are more difficult to manage than those in the open 
air, unless a proper system of some kind be followed. The 
one I practise is very simple, and, if carried out by others, I 
can guarantee there will be fewer complaints against seeds¬ 
men sending out seeds that will not grow. R. Fish. 
{To be continued.) 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, April 28, 1857. 49 
VISITS TO NURSERIES. 
PINE APPLE PLACE, EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON, 
MESSRS. ARTHUR HENDERSON & CO. 
This has been for years the most “accomplished” 
nursery in London. The late Mr. Knight, of the Exotic 
Nursery, was the most ladies’ man of his own class; 
but his plans and system of growth were not nearly so 
high in the science of cultivation and training as those 
at Pine Apple Place. Every inch and pane of glass 
here were familiar to the writer for more than twenty 
years; but since I doffed the blue apron in 1851 I had 
no occasion to call here till now, when I found every¬ 
thing in a higher style than usual. The first is the 
show-house, and it is three times larger than when I 
was last there ; a glass division between it and a much 
longer house has been removed, and the whole range is 
now “ the show-house.” Behind this is a new style and 
system of showing—a large piece of open ground set 
out with hardy plants in pots, chiefly, at this season, 
with a selection of the best flowering shrubs, and the 
newest and handsomest evergreens, Conifers, Tree 
Pteonies, lots of Forsythias in bloom, and so divided 
among the evergreens as to give a flower-bed effect, just 
as was suggested the other day for filling beds in winter. 
This is of immense advantage to amateurs and new 
garden people—a kind of university to see and learn the 
effects of grouping and showing off all manner of plants 
to the best advantage in-doors and out. 
The head proprietor of all this and the undersigned 
have been as one on colour, and on the effects of such 
and such arrangements, for the last quarter of a century. 
They were also the very parties who first introduced 
greenhouse Geraniums into masses for beds and bed¬ 
ding, and, at the present day, I look upon him as the 
best authority in England, or anywhere, on bedding 
Geraniums of that class. I made the most of the 
time he could spare that day to scrape off the rust 
of my last half dozen years on that head, and 
agreed to “ bring out ” a certain style of Geranium 
in a new character; but I must first go over the other 
things, as, if I once begin that subject, I shall forget 
the rest. 
At this season the newest plants in a nursery and the 
best of the old ones, or all those that are most called for, 
are sure to be met with in the smallest compass in the 
different propagating houses. This is, therefore, the 
best place to study them, and to note them down for 
future use. We began with Gesnerads, and took the 
Gloxinias first. No tribe of plants has ever been so 
improved as this in such a short time, and the erect- 
flowering kinds are the most fashionable. The best 
three kinds of them are Alba auriculata, a marble-white 
flower, a fine tinge of delicate lavender round the throat; 
Pavonia; and Violette. The next best are Adams’ 
Oculata, Magnijica, Mars car idea, and Princess of Prus¬ 
sia ; while Grandis and Grand Sultan are the best two 
of the old strain. 
The best Achimenes are Ambrose Verschaffedt (pro¬ 
nounced Verskafelt): this is also my own favourite—it is a 
light flower, with all the veining black, or of a dark colour; 
Longiflora major, the best of all the blues; Edward Otto, 
one of the best rose ones ; Edmund Bossiere, clear white, 
with purple stripes ; Dr. Hoopf, the next best in the way 
of No. 1 ; and Venusta is yet among the very best of the 
real purple kinds. Eucharis Amazonica is the best 
trade plant of all the pot bulbs, and it will do as a warm 
greenhouse plant. It is certainly a most beautiful ivory- 
white, Lily-like flower, and blooms all the year round, 
that is, where there are some dozen or so of flowering 
bulbs. Mr. Backhouse’s new African Imatophyllum, 
alias Vallota miniata, which has very little affinity with 
either Vallota or Imatophyllum, will be a scarce and 
dear plant for years to come. It seeds most sparingly, 
