THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
4 
_- July 1, 1904 b eterna talc: 
beautiful, interesting, and useful class of 
plants. I can remember the first garden 
that Thad charge of; it only boasted two 
.two-light garden frames, and it is needless 
to say that very little in the way of bedding 
stuff was stored there for a summer display. 
‘Consequently, we had to rely chiefly upon 
annuals for filling the beds and borders, 
and I believe that both my employer and 
myself derived as much pleasure and satis- 
faction from those ‘‘ weedy annuals” (as 
Some term them) as many people do from 
their varied assortment of bedding and sub- 
tropical plants. 
It is not to decry the latter that I take up 
my pen to-day, for I am sure our gardens 
are all the brighter for their presence, but 
to awaken interest in a rather neglected 
class of plants. What can be more beau- 
tiful than a few well-grown clumps of Corn- 
flowers, and the autumn-sown plants will 
become double the size of those sown in the 
spring, and will not so quickly succumb to 
a spell of drought. Larkspurs, again. are 
charming subjects, both the branching 
varieties and the Rocket, or Hyacinth- 
‘flowered. They may be had in blue, rose, 
and white, either separately or mixed. The 
‘double Rocket varieties are capital for 
massing, or for ribbon borders, while the 
tall branching kinds are very suitable 
for shrubbery borders, the background of 
the shrubs enhancing their beauty. Again, 
what can be more beautiful than some of 
the newer forms of the Candytuft, especially 
some of the new French hybrid varieties? 
Growing from three-quarters of a foot to a 
foot high, they are charming subjects for 
small beds. But they are all beautiful, and 
the only difficulty is that one cannot grow 
them all. 
Sow thinly in rows, six to nine inches 
apart, in fairly firm, but not over-rich 
ground. The plants may be thinned out so 
‘that they stand clear of each other, and be 
left in the seed-bed till the spring, or they 
may, if more convenient, be sown where 
they are to flower. But where one has the 
time and convenience the best results are 
obtained by pricking out the young plants 
in autumn, when they are about an inch or 
two in height, into nursery beds, and trans- 
planting them in the spring where they are 
to flower. To ensure success, it is necessary 
that the ground should be deeply dug 
during the winter, and enriched with 
manure that is in an advanced state of de- 
composition, such as would be obtained 
from an old hotbed. Work the surface two 
-or three times before planting, to obtaia 
a fine tilth. Lift the young plants very 
-caretully, so as not to break the little root- 
lets more than possible, and if the weather 
is dry when they are being transplanted to 
their flowering quarters, give them a gentle 
watering after planting. Light, feathery 
-sticks may be found necessary to support 
-some of the taller kinds, such .as the 
Schizanthus, Coreopsis, OCorntlowers, etc., 
ut the less the sticks are in evidence the 
better, as formality and ligidity are out of 
place with this class of plants. Appended 
is a list of kinds suitable for autunin sow- 
‘ing :—Alyssum maritimum (Sweet Alys- 
sum), Asperula azurea, Bartonia aurea, 
~Olarkias in variety, ollinsia bicolor, 
Candytufts in variety, Chrysanthemums 
(annual) in variety, Linum grandiflorum, 
-Cimnanthes Douglasii, Nemophila insignis, 
Saponaria calabrica, and S. alba, Schiz- 
anthus in variety, Silenes in variety, Vir- 
ginian Stocks, and Larkspurs in variety. 
W. T. Porter. 
THE WINTER PRESERVATION OF 
VARIOUS BULBS. 
I well remember a grand lot of Gloxinia 
bulbs being packed away in their pots 
between several rows of hot water pipes. 
They were in a dry enough place, to be 
sure, and the results were disastrous. 
When the time arrived for examining the 
bulbs and repotting them they were quite 
dead—dry-rot had destroyed every one. 
There must be discrimination on the part of 
the grower; Achimenes will withstand a 
hot, dry place better than Gloxinias, but 
excessive heat injures these also. They 
will be much shrivelled when turned out of 
the pots in spring, and, although not dead, 
are considerably weakened, and the new 
growth is delayed. 
If placed in a dry corner, where water 
cannot drop upon the pots—these being 
turned on their sides and packed one above 
another—and in a temperature of fifty to 
sixty degrees, they will keep sound. 
Gloxinias require the same treatment, 
but Begonias should have a somewhat 
cooler temperature—one which ranges from 
forty to fifty-five degrees. I have put 
down a fairly wide margin for the tempera- 
ture, because the bulbs will not be harmed 
in the least if the temperature stands at 
forty-five degrees or so for one weel, and 
degrees higher another. But the bulbs 
would be injured if a fixed temperature of, 
say, fifty degrees was maintained in all 
weathers in winter time. 
There may be other precious plants in the 
same house, which might be spoiled, and 
the bulbs, being under the soil in the pots, 
are not subjected to changes in the tem- 
perature sufficiently to be affected by them. 
Moreover, they are in a dormant condition, 
while the plants in the house are growing. 
Withhold water gradually from the soil 
when the bulbs are ripening. FB. 
ARTIFICIAL AGEING OF SEEDS. 
By GeorGes Berar. 
From the Revue Horticole, March 16, 1904. 
If we wish for certain qualities in some 
plants, e.g., cucumbers, vegetable marrows, 
melons, white-headed cabbage, radish, etc., 
we must use seed two or more years old. 
This fact has lone been known to market 
gardeners, and others are gradually learn- 
ing it. It is a custom with some gardeners, 
if they only have fresh seed to make this 
‘(age artificially” as they call it, by carry- 
ing it for a certain time iu their waistcoat 
pocket, thus keeping it at a temperature of 
70° to 80° Fahrenheit. Some incredulity 
may be felt at this statement, but it is an 
oid custom, and perhaps none the worse for 
that. 
In 1829 the Bureau of the National 
Horticultural Society reprinted the follow- 
ing paragraph from the Revue Horticole of 
the sume year :— 
“There are still some old gardeners who 
are in the habit of carrying melon seeds im 
their pocket for a long time before sowing, 
and as they do not, and perhaps cannot, 
explain their reason the younger ones only 
laugh. This habit seems to result from the 
observation that some seeds require a cor- 
tain degree of heat to mature them if they 
are to produce plants perfectly in agreement 
with the grower’s standard. That is to say, 
tlie use of artificial heat is believed to 
advance a seed one year old to the same 
‘stage as one of two years or three years.” 
The author of this article (whose views 
correspond exactly with those expressed at 
the last Horticultural Congress by M. Bazin 
and others) adds—‘‘It is a fact that many 
one year old seeds grow more rapidly than 
older ones, and that fresh melon seecs pro- 
duce a large quantity of male flowers and 
few female, while the contrary is the cise 
with old seeds.” Again, a report sent in to 
the Society for the Encouragement of Hor- 
ticulture ia Prussia states—‘‘ A fresh melon 
seed produces «about 200 times as many 
male flowers as female, a seed three years 
old gives about equal numbers, and a five 
year old seed all female flowers, which have 
to be fertilised from another plant Now, 
what does really happen to old seeds or ta 
those which being carried in the pocket a1e 
kept dry and a sensibly raised temperature? . 
An oxidization of the tissues and living 
fluids of the embryo takes place, and the 
latter thus acquires special properties. For 
seeds live with a slow and almost hidden 
life, not to be detected by our senses, but 
proved experimentally by keeping them in 
a confined place, where, after a certaim 
time, the enclosed air will be found to have 
lost oxygen and gained carbonic acid, 
owing to the respiration of the seeds. Jt 
is quite probable that this respiration is 
quickened by a raised temperature, which 
would explain the importance attached by 
some gardeners to this habit of carryiog im 
their pocket seeds which they wished “to 
make old.’ It would be well not to be in 
too great a hurry to laugh either at these 
facts or the expected results, for it would be 
easy to cite many observations of the sam> 
kind which might even appear more un- 
believeable had we not learned physiolo- 
gists to vouch for them. One of the most 
interesting of these facts concerns one of 
the mushrooms. M. Vieghem tells us in 
his ‘‘ Botanical Treatise,’ and in his ‘‘ Re- 
searches on the Latent Life of Seeds,” that 
the spores of this fungus will not germinate 
after leaving their envelope till they have 
been swallowed by a rabbit aud modified 
by its digestive juices. Having thus 
acquired germinative power they leave the 
body in the excreta and at once develop —R. 
BROWALLIA ELATA FOR WINTER. 
Tn the autumn and winter blue flowers 
are not too abundant, more especially for 
cutting. This plant, although only an an- 
nual, is a most useful blue-flowered plant 
to cut from. It is of the easiest culture, 
and may be had in bloom the greater por- 
tion of the year, provided seed is sown at 
different times. It is very useful during 
the autumn and winter months. When the 
plants are nicely grown they are useful for 
placing in vases. Any plant that can be 
grown quickly and that has such, useful 
