Cultivated-Plant Study 



605 



However, September is not too early for the planting, as the more root 

 growth made before the ground freezes, the better; moreover, the early 

 buyers have best choice of bulbs. The beds should be protected by a 

 mulch of straw or leaves during the winter, which should be raked off as 

 soon as the ground is thawed in the spring. The blossoms should be cut 

 as soon as they wither, in order that the new bulbs which form within and 

 at the sides of the parent bulb may have all of the plant food, which 

 would otherwise go to form seed. Tulips may be grown from seed, but it 

 takes from five to seven years to obtain blossoms, which may be quite 

 unlike the parent and worthless. The bulblets grow to a size for bloom- 

 ing in two or three years ; the large one which forms in the center of the 

 plant will bloom the next season. 



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Tulips 

 Courtesy Double-day, Page & Co, 



