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THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



Can you imagine the glory of such 

 growth, from a dried-up bulb in spring 

 to an enormous height of nine feet or 

 more, with leaves ranging in length from 

 three to four feet? But alas, their glory 

 is but ephemeral ; it is to be short-lived, 

 for some night not so far off, Jack Frost 

 will make his rounds and get in his hor- 

 rid work, and on the following morning 

 we will be met by a sickening sight. 

 Where once our stately giants had tower- 

 ed high in the air, nodding a happy wel- 

 come each day, there will be nothing but 

 a blackened wilted mass on the ground — 

 to me the saddest spectacle of the entire 

 year. 



Tenderly the blackened remains are ex- 

 humed, for to expose them to another 

 frosty night would mean death to tiie 

 bulbs. The leaves are cut off, and the 

 bulbs piled up in a heap, under shelter. 

 It is at tins particular time that the great- 

 est care must be exercised in handling 

 the plants, for where a delicate rootlet 

 has been torn from the bulb, an ave- 

 nue has been opened for dry rot. After 

 being exposed to the air for about two 

 weeks, as much soil is shakos from the 

 bulbs as will come away ; at no time are 

 the bulbs to be thumped to accomplish 

 this, for every bruise means the life of 

 the bulb later on. The stalks, which had 

 been cut back to about four feet at the 

 time the plants were taken from the 

 ground, are now reduced to about three 

 feet ; in other words, they are cut back 

 another foot. To cut them back too 

 deeply at first means too great a loss of 

 sap. 



The question of storing the bulbs in 

 winter seems to be the most difficult 

 problem of all. Many are the methods I 

 have used, and many are the bulbs that 

 have been sacrificed, until the present 

 method of caring for them was devised. 

 Each bulb, which still has a goodly por- 

 tion of soil clinging to, and interwoven 

 with the rootlets, is inverted, and sus- 

 pended in this fashion from the ceiling 

 in the cellar. It must be remembered 

 at this point that the stalks still measure 

 about three feet. The suspension of the 

 bulbs is accomplished by using wide 

 bands of a heavy duck, and forming this 

 into a noose ; it must be wide or the 

 bulbs will be cut and bruised by their 

 long continued dormancy. 



About January first, or during the 

 holidays, the bulbs must be inspected. A 

 large portion of the stalks which had 

 been aliowed to remain, will be found 

 to have undergone decomposition, and 

 this must all be removed ; in other words 

 the cleaning process must extend down 

 to the smaller inner healthy stalks, the 

 latter being arranged in a sheath-like 

 fashion, one closely surrounding the 

 other. The healthy stalks will be recog- 

 nized very readily by their clean pink co- 

 lor. The danger from loss of sap at this 

 time is practically nil. The bulb proper is 

 also included in the inspection, and the 

 sod remaining about the rootlets has 

 now become very dry ; the bulbs are 

 again shaken vigorously. The tempta- 

 tion to get rid of all of it at this time is 

 great, but under no pretext must this be 

 done, for as I have mentioned before, 

 each injury of this kind invites an attack 

 of germs and by spring the dry rot will 

 have eaten its way far into the very 

 center of the bulbs. 



Generally it is not necessan to re- 

 peat this inspection, but one must be ever 

 on the alert, for no plant is so liable to 

 be attacked by fungus growth and de- 

 composition as the caladium. It ma\ be 

 wiser to give them another thorough 

 overhauling during the latter part of 

 February. By the middle of March or 

 the beginning of April, the bulbs are 

 in readiness to begin another cycle of 

 growth. Now all the rootlets are thor- 

 oughly removed, and the stalks are 

 cleansed again of any decomposition ; 

 where this has extended very far, there 

 may be no pink stalks left, and the top 

 of the bulb may be devoid of any evidence 

 of stalks, but every bit of diseased tissue 

 must be thoroughly removed with a 

 sharp knife. All evidence also of lateral 

 sprouts or small bulbs at the side of the 

 large ones must be thoroughly removed, 

 and now they are ready for the cold 

 frame. 



During the summer months an effort 

 is made to prevent all lateral sprouts or 

 the formation of small bulbs; this is not 

 always attended by success for the small 

 plants appear almost as if by magic. The 

 height of the plants and the size of the 

 leaves has been mentioned, but no ref- 

 erence has been made to the circumfer- 

 ence of an individual plant when at its 



