Mr. James Douglas gives the Gardeners' Magazine his method as follows : " The variety intended to bear seeds must be watched, and as soon as the anthers can be perceived in the centre of the half opened flowers they must be removed with the finger and thumb, before the pollen cases burst. In two days more the flowers will be fully open, and the stigmatic portion will be quite ready to be dusted with the pollen from another variety. I dust the seed bearing flowers about four times. It is easy to do this, because at the time of setting the blossoms we go over the flowers twice a day. In the morning between nine and ten, and in the afternoon between two and three. The pods soon begin to swell, and when at their full size they very speedily ripen. They are ready to be gathered as soon as the pods crack from the top downwards. When gathered dry them in an airy room. The pods may be wrapped up in paper loosely until April, when they should be sown, about the first day in that month. My plan is to prepare a hot-bed for them, and to sow about fifty seeds in a 7-inch pot, using good light compost. The seeds vegetate in two weeks, and the way to be successful is to keep the young plants growing on without any check. The plants grow very rapidly, but it is best not to disturb them.

As they increase in size, gradually admit more air, until by the end of May the lights may be removed entirely; placing them over the frames only in very rough and frosty weather. By the end of September or not later than the middle of October, the young seedlings have completed their growth, and the pots will be full of bulbs varying in size from, a marrow pea to a filbert. The pots may be laid on their sides until the leaves decay, when the next step will be to shake the bulbs out, wrap them up in paper, and store the packages in a dry place where frost cannot reach them. If the soil in the pots is allowed to become moist after having been dried off the bulbs will start into growth in a few days, and will shoot up two inches in as many weeks. Through an accident of this kind I had 500 bulbs start into growth out of 1,000 before the end of October".