Either of these methods of propagation will secure not only healthy, but fruitful plants, in a short space of time; and this latter point will be found to be one of no small advantage. The principal objection which may be urged against their adoption, is that they necessarily involve a process of transplantation, which under any circumstances, and however carefully performed, must be regarded as an evil rather than otherwise. It may be thought that the _check_ arising from transplantation may do good, by preventing too great luxuriance of growth, and thereby tending to accelerate fruitfulness; but even if this result may be apparently produced by such means, it is surely far more natural to check the plants, by withholding a portion of food, rather than by mutilating the organs by which their food is conveyed to them, and then actually placing them in a position where food is still more abundantly supplied than before. It is very questionable however, how far what is called a "check" is justifiable as a means of inducing fructification; for if fructification be the most perfect state at which a plant can arrive, there does not seem to be much rationality in adopting any such means as a "check" in bringing about this perfection of developement. A _check_ applied as a means of accelerating maturity, can only be regarded as an expedient, rendered necessary by previous defective treatment. The most commonly practised as well as the most natural method of propagation, is by seeds, and this will generally be found to be also the best method, if the conditions required by its adoption can be properly carried out. There is however, one decided disadvantage attendant on the raising of Cucumber plants intended for winter forcing from seeds; and hence in a great measure arises the apparent superiority of propagating by extension: the disadvantage consists in the exceedingly succulent and lax nature of the tissue of the young plants; owing to that natural principle, by which their increase and extension is most especially provided for during the infant stages of their existence: the result is, that in consequence of the deficiency of light and solar heat, which are the grand agents of vegetable fructification, 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