/ 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 0 , 1857. 
gathered about November or December, as the weather will 
permit. They should be laid in a warm room where brisk 
tires are kept. The heat will cause the scales to open, and 
let the seeds drop out. In obstinate cases it may be necessary 
to drive an iron peg down the centre of the cone, forcing 
it open to get out the seed. The Cedar of Lebanon has 
cones so hard and close that it requires considerable force 
to get at the seed. 
The seeds of Fraxinus excelsior , or common Ash, may be 
gathered as soon as the leaves fall off the trees, dried, and 
kept till spring, or they may be allowed to hang on till 
February, and then gathered and sown directly. The 
Mountain Ash bears, as is well known, red berries. They 
contain the seeds amongst the pulp. Gather them when 
ripe, crush the berries, and wash the pulp away in water, 
draining it through a sieve fine enough to retain the seed. 
Spread it on paper to dry, and then put it in paper, and 
keep it in a dry room. Sow in prepared ground in April. 
Acer pseudo-platanus, the common Sycamore, ripens its seeds 
in July. They should be gathered then, and moderately dried, 
and kept in as cool and dry a room as possible; if warm 
and moist the seed will sprout and spoil. Sow in March. 
JEsculiis hippocastanum, the common Horse Chestnut, ripens 
its nuts in October. They are inclosed in a prickly shell, 
which bursts naturally, and the nuts may be gathered easily. 
Crcitccgus oxyacantha, the Cockspur Thorn, ripens its seed in 
November and December. It should be treated the same 
as the common Thorn, that is, the berries or haws should 
be gathered about October, laid in a heap, and covered with 
soil for a year; then taken out of the soil, and sown in 
either beds or rows (the latter is preferable), and they 
will come up the year following. Feigns sylvatica, the com¬ 
mon Beech, ripens its nuts in the autumn, and should be 
gathered as soon as they are ripe, or the squirrels and mice 
will destroy the best nuts, or conceal them for winter food. 
They should be gathered on a dry day, and placed in a dry 
room secure from vermin till the sowing season arrives. 
That season is April, for if sown sooner the late frosts will 
kill the young trees. The ground should be dug deep, and 
be well drained if necessary. It should be in good heart; 
that is, the year before it should have been under a crop of 
Potatoes, Turnips, Celery, or any,other crop that requires 
well manuring. Then draw drills a foot apart, and one inch 
and a half deep. Sow rather thickly, for some may not 
grow. 
Larix Europcca is the common Larch. I have already 
described how the seed should be gathered, cleaned, and 
preserved. To raise the plants it is needful to prepare the 
ground with great care. It should be ridged up in the 
autumn to receive the benefit of frosts, and be levelled 
down in the spring, chopping it very fine as the operation 
goes on; then towards the end of April, during dry 
weather, set out the beds three feet and p half wide, with 
two feet alleys between. Draw with a rake one inch of tin* 
soil into the walk, taking half the bed to one side and the 
other half to the other side; then sow the seed evenly over 
the bed, and cover it exactly half an inch deep; then level 
the surface with the back of the rake, and the operation is 
finished. Nursery labourers are very proud of their skill in 
this part of their business, and certainly some of them are 
very expert. The beds look so neat and tidy that it is really 
a pleasure to view them. 
Picea amabilis (the charming Silver Fir). I fear there 
is little hope for years to come of this fine species bearing 
mature seed. Whenever it does it should be managed 
exactly in the same way as the common Larch. 
Pinus Amtriaca requires also the same treatment. 
Ulmitx campestris (the English Elm), This tree ripens 
its seeds in June, giving the cultivator time to sow them 
and get the plants up the same season. The ripening of 
the seed is easily known by its falling from the trees. It 
may then either be swept up, or the gatherers may with 
ladders pluck the seed off the branches. The ground 
should, of course, be ready to receive it, and then the seed 
should be sown immediately. 
Alnus cordifolia does not ripen its seed till late in the 
year; hence it requires to be gathered, cleaned, and kept 
till the following spring. As the seed is very small it j 
should be covered very lightly. ' 
One point must be carefully attended to in raising such 
forest trees as have small seed. In'dry weather it is abso¬ 
lutely necessary to water freely and regularly, for if the seed 
once sprouts and the soil is dry the infant plant will 
perish. 
I hope I have answered our correspondent fully and 
satisfactorily, and I trust such information will be accept¬ 
able and useful to many of our readers. I shall at some 
future time give similar directions on raising many shrubs 
from seed,— T. Appleby.] 
WEEDY BED OF LILIES OF THE VALLEY. 
“ I have a bed of Lilies of the Valley which is now a mass 
of weeds. Would it hurt the bulbs to take them up, divest 
them of the weeds, and divide them ? They always flower 
very well, but at this time of year look exceedingly untidy in 
consequence of being so completely enveloped in coarse 
grass.”—E. 0. T. 
[It is very dangerous meddling with beds of Lily of the 
Valley, though they be so full of weeds. There is not a 
plant in our gardens more difficult to “ understand ” than 
this one. Where the soil suits it nothing will prevent it 
blooming most profusely; north, south, east, and west 
aspects are the same to it; full exposure to the sun and to 
all the winds, ditto. Under the shade and shadow of one 
of the finest Oaks in Surrey, on the chalk formation, and 
not many miles from the good old posting-town of Reigate, 
we have seen the Lily of the Valley bloom most profusely 
for years and years, and we have seen the best practical 
gardeners in the country put to their wits’ ends to get a hand¬ 
some “ bunch ” of it. We know places where it will only bloom 
under a north wall, and others -where that aspect would be 
fatal to it, and so forth; therefore beware of how you proceed 
with your bed. Take up only one-half of it this autumn— 
October is the best time to move it; but can you recognise 
its “ roots ” from those of the Couch Grass vfflich run 
amongst it? You mention its “ bulbs ; ” but this Lily has 
none, only long, creeping roots, and as much like those of 
Couch Grass as any two kinds of roots you ever saw. It 
would not be difficult to “cut out” a handful of “roots” 
from your bed which would baffle the science and practice 
of a good gardener to distinguish the one kind from the 
other. Therefore again we say, take heed how you disturb 
a bed of the Lily of the Valley. Proceed thus:—Trench down 
at one end of the bed till you get below the layer of roots— 
they do not run deep—then work out the roots with a fork; 
those of the Lily of the Valley have a thick, knob-like point 
to the growing ends ; select all such, and take six inches of 
the roots back from the knob ends; place these, with the 
thick ends all one way, in rows across the new bed, four 
inches from root to root, and the next row six inches from 
thick end to thick end, and so on to the end; then cover 
them just four inches thick ; leave one-half of the bed as it 
is till you see the new bed in bearing.] 
ROSES FOR STANDARDS IN BEDS. 
“ Will you furnish me with a list of sixteen standard 
Roses to be planted in two circles several feet apart round 
a centre bed ? I wish for those which will form the best 
variety as to colour, and will continue longest in bloom.”— 
R. T. E. 
[1. Crimson Perpetual, or Rose du Roi. 2. Magador. 
3. Baronne Prevost. 4. Geant des Batailles. f>. Duchess 
of Sutherland. 6. Auguste Mie. 7. Robin Hood. 8. 
William Griffiths. 0. General Jacqueminot. 10. La Reine, 
if the ground suits it. 11. Madame Rivers. 12. Queen of 
Bourbons. 13. Souvenir de Malmaison. 14. Souvenir de 
^Exposition. 15. Gloire de Paris, <fcc. 1G. Dupetit Thouars. 
The last five are Bourbons, the rest hybrid perpetuals, em¬ 
bracing the best bed qualities of tbe breeds.] 
