230 
THE HARDENING WORLD 
December 10, 1887. 
flowers, but more especially to amateurs. During June, 
July, August, and September, they formed the prettiest 
outdoor bedding or border plants ; and then, when 
danger of night frosts arose, they became valuable for 
greenhouse or conservatory decoration for two months 
more, only requiring to be lifted into pots, which could 
be done without causing the slightest check, as they 
invariably carry copious balls and masses of fibrous 
roots, closely and compactly surrounding the tubers. 
They thus afforded intermittent blooms for six months. 
All they required to make them thrive, grow luxuri¬ 
antly, and completely cover the beds, was a light rich 
soil, copiously supplied with water, if the summer 
was at ajl hot or dry. If beds were well drained they 
could not possibly get too much water. A good 
drenching overhead, with a coarse rose watering pot, 
in the evening of a hot day, had the most beneficial 
effect. Another great and conspicuous merit possessed 
by this plant was that, even when in full bloom, they 
could bear the injury of storm and heavy rain which 
would destroy other flowers, the only effect on Begonias 
being to cause their pliant footstalks to bend to the 
storm ; their lovely blooms on the reappearance of the 
calm and sun again rising in all their brilliancy and 
beauty. Tubers should be started to grow not earlier 
than the second week in March. The best plan with 
all young tubers was to start them in boxes or seed 
pans in any moist, warm place, such as a Cucumber or 
Melon frame, until they had' begun growth ; they 
should then be potted or transplanted into boxes of 
sandy soil, and again placed in warmth until they 
have grown a little, when they should be gradually 
hardened off the same as Pelargoniums. 
Begonias dislike heat more than any other plant 
with which he was acquainted. Older tubers 
required no heat, as they started quite freely in any 
greenhouse or cold frame. If, at planting time, it was 
found that the soil in the beds was strong or coarse, a 
handful or two of light sandy mixture worked in about 
the roots would assist them to start into vigorous 
growth. Immediately they were planted they should 
have a good soaking of soft water to settle the soil 
about the roots ; and, if hot or windy, an empty 
flower pot turned over each plant for a few hours 
would be found to be a good plan. 
Tor the decoration of greenhouses or conservatories, 
tuberous Begonias are charming plants, and as easily 
grown as zonal Pelargoniums, requiring the same treat¬ 
ment as to air, water, soil, &c., except that there must 
be no manure added to the soil when grown in pots 
during the summer. When in full growth they enjoy 
weak liquid manure once or twice a week. Many 
varieties make glorious basket plants ; but they require 
an abundant supply of water, for if stinted in this they 
very often drop, or leave all their blooms in the bud 
state. As to propagating most of them, they were as 
easily rooted as Pelagoniums. The singles were very 
easily raised from seed, but he thought the day was not 
far distant when, like Gloxinias and other things, they 
would give up most of the named sorts, as seedlings 
from a good strain would supply all they desired. 
-- 
RHODODENDRON CUNNING¬ 
HAMS BLUSH. 
This very useful hardy Rhododendron adapts itself 
easily to the process of forcing, and may be had in 
flower at almost any time from Christmas onward to 
Easter. Plants that are well set with flower-buds 
should be lifted, potted, and placed in a frame just 
sufficiently heated to keep out frost. 
By this means the flower-buds have a slight impetus 
given them to commence swelling at once, and after 
showing this they may be at once transferred to a stove- 
heat, where they will quickly develop their trusses, and 
as these open they will soon turn to a pure white, thus 
losing the blush with which they are tinged when 
they begin to expand. The trusses of flowers come in 
very handy at any time where white flowers are in 
demand ; and are much sought after at either Christ¬ 
mas or Easter for church decorations. 
Those who possess large plants in the open ground 
and do not require them to bloom before , the early 
spring season, would do well to lift a few and place 
them in any corner of a greenhouse or early vinery, 
covering the roots with a good quantity of old potting 
soil. As the season advances the buds will swell and 
develop under very ordinary circumstances, and be of a 
much firmer texture than when forced earlier into 
bloom. 
A stock of this very useful kind is not to be despised 
by those who want large white flowers in quantity at 
the times named. After early forcing the plants should 
be allowed to make a good growth in a light airy house; 
afterwards they may either be planted out again or 
plunged pots and all in the open ground. If allowed 
to make their growth in pots they are better adapted 
for early forcing purposes. — IF. G. 
-- 
SEEDS AND SEEDSMEN. 
At the fortnightly meeting of the Manchester Horti¬ 
cultural Improvement Society, held on Thursday, 
December 1st, the president, Mr. Bruce Findlay, who 
was in the chair, said Mr. Robert Tait, junior, was to 
read a paper that evening on “ Flower Seeds and their 
Culture.” Before he did so he (Mr. Findlay) would like 
to say a few words about seeds in general, and also 
about seedsmen. The latter should be like Caesar’s 
wife, above suspicion. For unless they supplied a 
genuine article it must lead to failure in our crops, 
which would undoubtedly be a great calamity. Some 
few years ago seed adulteration was carried to such an 
extent that a number of gentlemen in the seed trade 
got the Government of the day to introduce a bill into 
Parliament, and it was passed into law. It was called 
the Seed Adulteration Act. He was not acquainted 
with the clauses contained in the Act, but if they were 
not stringent they ought to be. A tradesman dealing 
honestly need not care how stringent the law was. It 
would only be put in force to detect those who were 
deceiving their customers. In many kinds of seeds it 
was most difficult to detect bad ones, and both good 
and bad had to grow together till harvest time. He 
knew of nothing more provoking than to be disappointed 
with the result of one’s seed growing. From the time 
the seed was deposited in the soil till it yielded its 
flower or fruit, it was a period of expectation and hope 
deferred. The uncertainty in the quality of seeds 
might be owing in part to their having been produced 
in part in a bad climate, the husks alone being formed 
without the presence of a living germ within. Another 
cause was the destruction of the vital piinciple in con¬ 
sequence of the seeds having been stored before they 
were dried, the inevitable effect of which was the loss 
or fatal weakening of germinating power. In some 
instances an eager gardener gathers them before they 
were ripe, as was much the case with those seeds which 
were not seeds at all, but seed vessels. These might 
be fair to the eye, although empty within. 
These causes, to say nothing of others, were more or 
less in continual operation, and seedsmen themselves 
could by no means always guard against being deceived 
by appearances ; but it was evident that unless seeds 
were uniformly alike in quality, there could be no 
certain rule by which to determine the quantity to be 
sown. It might be alleged that those who sold seeds 
were interested in leading their customers to purchase 
as much as possible. Supposing it to be so, and 
making every degree of allowance for that feeling, it 
still remained evident that the quantity of seed 
required for a given space could not be determined by 
fixed rules, but that so many adverse influences were 
in action as to render minute calculations worthless, 
and compel submission to a large amount of waste. In 
order to judge what was the real germinating power of 
a sample of seed, it was the practice among the principal 
seedsmen to have “trial books,” in which they record 
the percentage of seed that grows under the following 
circumstances :—100 seeds are sown in a garden-pot 
filled with fine light soil. The pot was placed in a 
gentle hot-bed, and as soon as the young plants had 
fully appeared they were counted. If the seed was 
wholly good, the return was 100 ; if good only in part, 
it may be any lower number—say fifty. In that case, 
as only half grows, it -would require 2 lbs. to do the 
work of 1 lb. This was a very old practice, and seemed 
at first sight to be unexceptionable, Nevertheless, it 
was far from being so good as it looked. 
It was well known that in earth constantly damp 
and warm, seeds having very feeble vital power would 
grow satisfactorily, and soon gain vigour from the 
surrounding atmosphere, but in cold soil they lie and 
perish. Now all our hardy seeds were committed to 
the ground at that time of the year when even at mid¬ 
day its temperature is not above 45°, and when at 
night the temperature may even fall to 30°. Under 
such conditions, which were wholly unlike those of the 
“trial pots,” the same result could not be expected. 
All knew how loud and ceaseless aie the cries of gar¬ 
deners as well as amateurs, that the seeds they purchase 
would not grow. It never seemed to occur to the com¬ 
plainants that they themselves were executioners and 
the. seeds their victims. Seeds of a plant inhabiting a 
dry country, with little winter’s cold and a genial early 
steady spring, were sown here in the open border in 
March or April. There they lie in most uncongenial 
soil, exposed to wet and cold. But the force of life 
was strong within them. Nature would have its way. 
Germination begins some bright sunny day, after which 
comes an ice-cold dew at night, and the young embryo 
is rendered torpid. Nevertheless, weakened as it is, 
the succeeding day sees a renewed effort at growth, 
followed by renewed torpidity. The same alternation 
of paralysis and revival goes on for a little while till at 
last the powers of nature are exhausted, and the seed 
expires. Now these early efforts are out of sight; no 
eye watches the struggle, and the seeds die while 
buried, and the seedsman is abused. Depend upon it, 
in eight cases out of ten the fault lies with the person 
sowing the seeds. If they were sown when the weather 
was warm, and were covered at night for a week or two 
with a screen or with a thin coating of straw, such as 
the market gardeners raise their spring Radishes under, 
very little disappointment would take place. 
Mr. Tait then read his paper. He said his intention 
was not so much to say which were the best methods of 
raising plants for seed as to give the members of the 
society an account of the way in which the work was 
managed on the principal flower farms in Germany, 
where he had spent three months in one of the busiest 
centres. The cultivation of flower seeds was most suc¬ 
cessfully followed in many parts of Northern Germany. 
The two principal centres were Quidlinburg and Erfurt, 
and it was of the first of these that he should speak, 
having spent eleven out of the twelve weeks of his stay 
in that town. Quidlinburg was a small town about 100 
miles south-east of Hanover, and had a population of 
about 18,000. Of this number the gardeners and others 
employed by the various seedsmen constituted by far the 
most considerable proportion. There were, he believed, 
about eight large firms in the neighbourhood, besides 
several minor ones. The firm he was with traded under 
the title of Messrs. Dippe Brothers, and was the largest 
in the place, if not in the whole of Germany. The piles 
of buildings used as warehouses and offices belonging to 
the firm were astonishing ; they constantly employed 
about 1,000 workpeople, and upon special occasions this 
number was greatly exceeded. There were also some 
160 horses and ninety oxen. The land owned by the 
firm consisted of about 4,000 English acres, of which 
nearly 300 were devoted to flower seeds ; the remainder 
were used for vegetables, cereals and sugar beet. Im¬ 
mense tracts of land were used for a single variety of 
flower, and no one who had not seen it could imagine 
the sight presented by a field of twenty acres of Asters 
in full bloom ; it presented the appearance of a gigantic 
carpet, such as, however, could not be made by human 
hands. Mr. Tait then went on to speak of the principal 
seed plants on the farm, and gave the meeting a brief 
description of each. He said that hardy and half-hardy 
annuals were cultivated on the farm in beds of various 
sizes, ranging from five to twenty yards square. Many 
hundreds of varieties were to be seen, and as all annuals 
were improved by being grown in masses they form a 
very interesting sight. Messrs. Dippe believed in giving 
the plants plenty of room in which to develope, which 
was undoubtedly the correct method, for where plants 
were grown close together and so crowded that the air 
could not get among them, the flowers deteriorated. 
-- 
PRIORWOOD, MELROSE. 
The fine collection of Orchids at Priorwood is the 
property of Alexander Curie, Esq., whose plants are 
contained in three houses devoted respectively to warm, 
intermediate, and cool house species. In the w_arm 
house there is a general collection of Aerides, Cattleyas, 
Dendrobiums, Lcclias, Phahcnopsis, Saccolabiums, and 
Yandas, and all are in fine health. Amongst the 
most notable plants are Aerides Lawrencea: and A. 
Sanderiana, Cattleya amethystoglossa, C. exoniensis, 
C. Gaskelliana alba, a splendid specimen ; C. imperialis, 
C. labiata, autumn-flowering variety just out of bloom; 
C. Skinneri alba, C. Triame alba, and C. Yagenerii, 
going to flower ; Dendrobium crassinode album and D. 
Waltoni, both well set with flower buds ; Lafiia aneeps 
Dawsoni, L. elegans Turneri, and a very fine specimen 
of a grand variety of L. purpurata alba ; Oncidium 
ornitliorhynehum album, and Phaltenopsis Parishii. 
Amongst the Yandas are some very fine specimens of 
all the best sorts from 3 ft. to 5 ft. high, all clothed 
with fine dark green foliage down to the pot, the most 
notable of which is Y. ccerulea, a very fine plant with 
twenty-one pairs of leaves, and bearing two fine spikes 
of thirteen flowers each; a very fine large-flowering 
variety. Y. vandarum is also showing flower. 
