March 29, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
473 
are of some size, and the tips of the leaves are also cut 
away to prevent their drooping and flagging. They are 
then dropped into the holes where their roots are simply 
covered with soil and watered. The holes are left to be 
filled up as the plants grow. By this time the sides of 
the holes have crumbled in, and the hoe does the rest. 
By this means the elongation of the stem is encouraged, 
and blanching is, at the same time, promoted by the 
filling up of the holes. 
In other cases trenches are taken out as if for Celery, 
only much smaller. Rich soil in an open situation is 
selected in either case, and improved by means of 
farmyard manure, well made, or vegetable humus 
obtained from the rubbish heap after it has lain for 
some time to become well decomposed. The plants in 
the trenches are gradually 
earthed up, this is, perhaps, 
the least often adopted 
method of treatment, as it 
requires more labour. A 
more recent practice is to 
sow seeds in pans or boxes, 
and stand them on a hot-bed 
or in a propagating pit, so 
as to bring on the plants 
early. By this means the 
plants soon get ahead of 
those planted in the open 
ground. As the weather 
gets warm they are well 
hardened off, and finally 
planted out in the open 
ground in June, and treated 
in some of the above- 
mentioned ways. 
With a vast number of 
Scotia’s toiling sons, and 
among them the miners in 
particular, the Leek is an 
object of special cultiva¬ 
tion, and large numbers of 
seedlings are annually raised 
by trade growers, to be 
drawn from the seed beds 
and sold in bunches in the 
different markets. Some 
idea of the extent of this 
trade we gleaned when 
recently visiting the Abbey 
Nursery, Melrose. Here 
were two comparatively 
small beds, Vine borders 
in fact, which had been 
annually used for the same 
purpose for some years, 
and from which the worthy, 
hard - working proprietor, 
Mr. Robert Mercer, told us 
he had drawn as much as 
£20 worth of plants in a 
single season, and they are 
sold at a cheap rate too. 
A great number of the 
plants are sold to miners, 
and Mr. Mercer told us—as 
illustrating the extent to 
which that class go in for 
Leek culture—that on one 
occasion the miners at one 
colliery alone clubbed to¬ 
gether and sent him an order 
for 11,000. Mr. Mercer 
mainly grows one sort, 
Henry’s Prize, or Ayton 
Castle, the next most in 
favour among his customers 
being the Musselburgh, 
and he takes care, of course, to grow only good stocks 
of each. 
-•»£«•- 
Nepenthes Curmsn. 
Nepenthes cylindrica. 
NEPENTHES OURTISII AND 
N. CYLINDRICA. 
The first-named is a native of Borneo, from whence it 
was introduced as recently as 1887. The leaves are 
moderate in size, somewhat leathery, and smooth on 
the upper surface. The pitchers, on the other hand, 
are proportionately large, being about 8 ins. in length, 
and varying somewhat in shape, according to the 
position of the leaves bearing them. They are dull 
green, and closely blotched all over with purple. The 
lid is also beautifully marbled with purple on the lower 
surface, and at either end of the same surface bears a 
projecting horn. There is a similar process at the back 
of the pitcher, some distance below the lid, which is, as 
far as position goes, an unusual occurrence. The 
fringed wings are narrow. Both this and the general 
contour of N. cylindrica may be seen from the accom¬ 
panying illustration. The latter is a garden hybrid 
between N. Yeitcliiiand N. hirsuta glabrescens. The 
pitchers are somewhat inflated in the lower half, and 
vary from 6 ins. to 8 ins. long. They are pale green, 
with a few crimson markings on the upper portion as 
well as on the oval lid. It may serve as a contrast to 
the forms with darker pitchers. It was brought into 
public notice about three years ago. We are indebted 
to Messrs. J. Veitch& Sons, Chelsea, for an opportunity 
of figuring both kinds. 
The sowing of all sorts of seeds in the garden is looked 
upon as a very important operation. Of the truth and 
force of this none will doubt, as even the most indif¬ 
ferent tyro in horticultural pursuits takes an interest 
in seed sowing. Who has not observed with what pride 
a town or country urchin will sow—as they are pleased 
to call it—a few orange seeds, carefully selected from 
the—to them—sweet delicacy of a sour orange, in an old 
tea-pot or jelly mug ; and with what patience they will 
watch for the hraird, counting the days or weeks since 
the seeds were sown, and calculating the prospects of 
the number that may “ come up,” tending them with 
almost parental care, and before scampering off to 
school leaving injunctions as to what is to be done 
with their tiny seedlings in their absence, &c. This is 
illustrative of man’s nature and finer feelings ; and 
from small beginnings and the lessons they have taught 
have sprung higher ideals ; and it is not too much to 
say in many instances have paved the way to success 
in business—teaching as they do lessons of patience, 
and from the results achieved with patience bestowed 
on their tiny seeds sown in their own primitive way, 
have enabled men to expect pecuniary and satisfactory 
results when all seemed dark and hopeless. Viewed 
then in this favourable aspect, surely it must be a 
source of unfailing interest to the general horticulturist, 
seeing that from a thorough understanding of seed 
sowing, he derives so much of his success. The words, 
“general horticulturist,” embrace a wide field—men of 
all shades of opinion and learning, and of all grades of 
society and training ; yet 
I venture to assert, few, 
if any, will gainsay the 
remark that seed sowing is 
a very important and in¬ 
teresting operation. 
Bearing in mind the fact 
that all or nearly all our 
choice fruits, flowers, and 
vegetables have been ob¬ 
tained fromseedscarefully se¬ 
lected by the manipulating 
hand of the hybridist, in 
many instances at great cost 
and sometimes peril, we 
cannot ignore that particular 
individual, although in the 
eyes of many horticulturists 
he is a mysterious being, 
scarce in sympathetic touch 
with them ; and yet but for 
him our gardens would lack 
much of their interest, 
and, undoubtedly, much of 
their value. Whilst speak¬ 
ing of the hybridist as 
essential in the production 
of our novelties in choice 
seeds, it may not be out of 
place to speak of our seeds¬ 
men. They, too, are in¬ 
dispensable, although they 
generally get the worst of it 
when failure occurs in the 
brairding of seeds—mayhap 
something very common¬ 
place indeed—when perhaps 
the fault rests entirely with 
the sower or tender of the 
seeds after sown. 
Who has not seen gross 
errors committed in sowing 
too deep, and too shallow- 
in soil too wet or too dry ? 
Nothing short of a careful 
observance of these matters 
will make a successful sower, 
and nothing short of that, 
it may also be said, will make 
a successful grower. In 
the case of seeds of tardy 
germination, lailures often 
occur more through im¬ 
patience than in consequence 
of sowing the seeds in any of 
the ways indicated above ; 
and it is well to exercise 
patience combined with dis¬ 
cretion in this matter, seeing 
that all seeds do notgerminate 
alike. I have perhaps made 
my introductory remarks 
too lengthy (indeed, more so than I intended) ; but as 
the subject affects such a host of individuals, comprising 
men of science, art, and literature — } T ea, even from the 
royal palace to the humble cot, anything that has 
been introduced may be interesting to some, and I hope 
instructive to others. 
When I lifted my pen I intended putting this subject 
in semi-calendarial form, but having I fear already 
transgressed too far on your valuable space, I will con« 
fine my remarks to a few practical observations on the 
sowing of vegetable seeds, and may perhaps in another 
paper write upon flower seeds, tender, half-hardy and 
hardy. We are often told that seeds should have their 
own depth of soil. This, I may be permitted to say, is in 
many cases misleading and open to question. Take 
Peas, for instance. Sow them with a light covering of 
