20 THE PLANT WORLD 



almost any dealer ; the cost is about 40c. a dozen or approximately $1.50 

 per hundred. They should be placed in a flat glass dish and the spaces 

 around them filled with small stones or coarse sand, not of course for 

 nutriment, but simply to keep them from falling over when the leaves 

 and flowers have grown. Fill the dish with water until the bulbs are 

 about two-thirds covered, then set the dish in a cool, dark place — as a 

 closet or cellar — for at least two weeks. At the end of this time the bot- 

 tom of the dish will be filled with a tangled mass of white roots, and the 

 narrow leaves will be showing. The dish should now be brought out 

 and placed in the sunlight and in the temperature of an ordinary living- 

 room. The leaves and flower stalks will push rapidly and in ten days or 

 two weeks the flowers will begin to unfold. They are snow white and 

 delightfully fragrant, and last for two weeks or more if not in too warm 

 a room. 



Temperature of "Water for Plants. — It seems to be the generally ac- 

 cepted opinion of florists and gardeners that watering plants with cold 

 water is detrimental to growth, but until quite recently no one has ap- 

 parently undertaken to ascertain just how cold the water may be without 

 producing this result. The idea is especially wide-spread that plants 

 grown under glass or in a living-room are injured by water colder than 

 the air immediately about the plants. With a view to ascertaining the 

 facts in the case the Wisconsin Experiment Station undertook a series of 

 tests a few years ago, and the results are set forth in a bulletin that is 

 full of interesting matter. Plants were grown under glass and in the 

 open field and in all cases the results were similar. Thus coleus planted 

 in lots of equal size and vigor were watered with water at 35°, 50°, 65°, 

 and 86° F. At the end of 60 days it was impossible to note any differ- 

 ence, and when the experiment was repeated with water at 2>2° , 40°, 70°, 

 and 100° the result was the same. Beans watered with water at 32°, 40°, 

 70°, and 100° were equally vigorous, in fact water at 32° and 40° gave 

 the best results. Lettuce watered with water at 32° yielded slightly more 

 than the other lots. From these experiments it was concluded that for 

 vegetable and flowering plants commonly grown under glass ordinary' 

 well or spring water may be used freely at any time of the year without 

 warming. 



A Good Greenhouse Plant. — A plant that should be more common in 

 ornamental greenhouse cultivation is Ardisia crefiata, a handsome ever- 

 green shrub of the Myrsine family and a native of the tropics. It is a 

 rather slow grower, having a bushy, rounded crown, thickly set with 

 thick, dark-green leaves which are about two inches in length and have 

 the margins crenate. The chief attractiveness of this shrub is in the 

 bright red berries, of which it bears a profuse crop, which remain on the 

 plant in attractive condition until another crop is matured, or for a 



