MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 217 



June and July ; some, indeed, in May. If the bulbs are left undis- 

 turbed, they begin throwin<i' out new roots in August and September 

 (as one may ascertain by digging), and by ]Srovember or December most 

 of them begin a top growth ; the crown pushes its way very nearly tO' 

 and occasionally through the surface of the soil, and stands there, 

 regardless of freezing, all winter, and as soon, as the spring sun has 

 thawed the ground, presto! before you can believe it, almost, the beau- 

 tiful flowers are smiling in the face of the sun. If the bulbs, instead 

 of being left in the ground, are to be taken up to divide or move, it 

 should be done as soon as the tops and roots are dead, and they may 

 then (except lily bulbs, which should never be kept exposed to the air) 

 be kept dry and dormant till convenient to plant, even till mid-winter ; 

 though, as a general rule, tlie earlier they are planted, the better they 

 will bloom next spring. 



As to the manner of planting, I fear the minute directions some- 

 times given as to the number of eighths of inches deep and the kind 

 and amount of mulching necessary, with the day of the month and 

 phase of the moon when it should be applied and removed, etc., often 

 convince people that so great accuracy is necessary that they conclude 

 they cannot grow them successfully. Of course, I would not recom- 

 mend the plan of just digging a hole and throwing the bulbs in ; some 

 regard must be had to the size of bulbs and habit of growth — say 1 to 3 

 inches for small bulbs like Scillas, Crocus, Snowdrops, etc., and 3 to 7 

 inches for Tulips, Hyacinths, il^arcissi, Snowflakes, etc. A pretty good 

 rule is to plant them all a little too deep. 



Lilies, from their manner of growth, need much deeper planting 

 than other bulbs, for, unlike others, they throw out roots above the 

 bulb, on the flower stalk, from the bulb to the surface of the soil, while 

 the roots of all others are from the bottom of the bulb alone. Lilies 

 of the Canadense family may be planted as shallow as seven inches, 

 but large growing kinds, with solid bulbs, like Tiger, Humboldt, Wash- 

 ingtonianum, Auratum, and such, I would plant a foot or more deep. 

 They will, of course, be a little later coming up in the spring, but they 

 will grow stronger and bloom more freely. 



Another point in the planting of all bulbs except lilies is, that they 

 make a much finer appearance in masses than singly. A single bloom 

 is fine, but six or eight in a cluster are twenty times finer than one is. 

 A good many catalogues give one foot apart as the proper distance for 

 lily-bulbs, but I have dozens of clumps that cover circles of 2i feet in 

 diameter now, and except for a very few of the smaller kinds 3 feet is 

 near enough. As to mulching, I have never used any, not because I 

 don't think it beneficial, but simply because I haven't. Let me add that 



