Page:On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae.djvu/29

 Rh The best season for sowing seeds is from December to March, as they will then produce strong plants before the following winter; but it is by no means intended to say, that they will not succeed at other periods, and it is a common practice with most gardeners on the receipt of fresh seeds, to make trial with a few, whenever they arrive. If sown in the latter end of summer, or in autumn, the young plants will require a particularly favourable exposure, and dry shelf that receives all the rays of the sun during winter, otherwise they will too frequently become sickly, and damp off.

In this Natural Order, we find fruits and seeds, of very different sizes as well as shapes, but fortunately they are so similar in species of the same genus, that a gardener who is not learned in botany, after having seen one of each, may have a tolerable guess, at the genus of any new ones, he receives from abroad. In sowing them, much must be left to the discretion of the gardener; generally they ought not to be buried deeper than half an inch in the earth, nor closer to each other, than from a quarter of an inch to an inch, according to their size; taking special care to place them regularly near the edge of the pot, where the circle is largest; for there if any where they will certainly succeed, not only often vegetating sooner, but thriving better after they do vegetate than in the middle, probably in consequence of air and moisture there percolating more freely. After the seeds are sown, water the earth gently through an exceedingly fine rose, so as not to disturb its equality of surface, and let it be given very sparingly at first, as hasty watering upon fresh sifted mould generally occasions the surface to cake, then place the pots level upon the stage of a green-house exposed to the full sun. At night, and in wet weather, cover them with strong brown paper, to prevent drops of water from the roof making holes in the mould, which however should at all times be kept moderately moist: also, let all those sown between May, and September, be so shaded as to be quite in darkness from about 6 o'clock p. m. to the same hour a. m., for in our