ication, their sap does not become sufficiently
elaborated, nor their tissue rendered sufficiently solid by assimilation
and deposition of matter, to bring about the developement of floral parts;
the food and moisture imbibed, instead of being sublimated and fully
elaborated, is only partially acted on by the vital and natural agents,
and the result is an increase of growth, but not a developement of
fruit-bearing parts. There is nevertheless, an advantage in raising plants
from seeds, not only as regards the obtaining of improved races, but also
in a cultural point of view. The science of Horticulture, does acknowledge
such a thing as progression, in the developement of plants; the functions
of nutrition necessarily go on prior to those of reproduction or
fructification, the latter being continually dependant on, as well as
being the result of the former: hence we arrive at a conclusion, that _to
supply uninterruptedly_, ALL _the elements which administer to the
nutrition of a plant, is the most rational means of inducing a state of
fruitfulness_. This may at first sight be questioned; cases may readily
enough be quoted, in which food has been bountifully supplied, and the
plants have grown amazingly, but not fruited; if however, food had been
thus supplied, in connexion with a due share of _light_, and an _excess of
heat_ had been avoided, we have natural evidence to prove unquestionably
that fructification would have followed. An abundance of food, a high
temperature, and a deficiency of light, are just the conditions which are
opposed to the developement of the floral organs in plants, and are
inductive of mere barren extension: not that plants grow thus, because
they delight in such a state of things, but because they are thereby
unnaturally excited and compelled to do so, although that growth cannot
under such circumstances, become properly matured; and hence arises the
impossibility of their producing blossoms.

The advantage of raising plants of Cucumbers from seeds, consists in the
facility thus afforded of altogether avoiding transplantation: the roots
of Cucumbers are of a very tender nature, and however carefully they may
be transplanted, they are liable to sustain injury in the removal: by
having recourse to depositing the seeds at once in the soil where they are
intended to grow, this is entirely obviated, and there can be no possible
reason why the conditions necessary to germination should not be as fully