NOVEMBER. 243 



care nothing as to the results they produce In tlie hands of their pur- 

 chasers. With them a bulb is a bulb ; the stipulation that it is to 

 flower does not enter into their contract. Tliey visit the habitats of 

 the plants when they are in full foliage or flower, because they can 

 then be easily recognised, and make their collections. After the bulbs 

 are removed, they undergo a drying process ; all indication of foliage 

 is removed, and in this state they are sorted and j)acked for sale. 

 In this condition they are purchased by persons having garden-loving 

 friends at home, and despatched to this country, a source of vexa- 

 tion to the recipient rather than a pleasure. Every one at all con- 

 versant with the first elements of the physiology of plants, knows 

 quite well that to materially damage the foliage of a j)lant is to dis- 

 turb its whole economy. In the most ordinary i)]ant this is obvious ; 

 in bulbous plants, if possible, it is doubly so. Many of the Amaryl- 

 lids if removed, or if their foliage is much damaged before the 

 flower-bud is formed, will not recover themselves and regain a flow- 

 ering condition with the best treatment for two or three seasons. It 

 is scarcely necessary to say, that in all bulbs the flowers we enjoy 

 this season are formed perfect in every particular in the preceding, 

 and carefully deposited within its tissues, waiting for the proper sea- 

 son and condition to unfold its beauties. During this process all the 

 energies of the plant are called into activity. The leaves, the roots, 

 are absorbing and elaborating the necessary matter, out of which is to 

 be fashioned the future flower. If in this state the functions of the 

 plant are interfered with, and their action retarded at this stage, no 

 flower is produced, and an additional amount of damage is done 

 in weakening the constitution of the bulb. The next season is ab- 

 sorbed in recruiting its exhausted energies, and another in elaborat- 

 ing a flower ; and a long period must elapse, under the most favour- 

 able circumstances, ere you can be gratified with one. In bulbs 

 having perennial roots, if they are deprived of them, a longer 

 recruiting period is found to be required, the first season almost 

 the whole energy of the bulb is thrown into the formation of roots, 

 or in what may not be inaptly termed preparing to grow ; then there 

 is estabhshing its constitutional vigour ; then the final elaboration 

 of the matter for the formation of the flower. Thus season after 

 season is consumed, till no wonder patience becomes exhausted, and 

 where pleasure was expected, disappointment is found. If you exa- 

 mine carefully an arrival of these imported bulbs, you may readily 

 trace the action of the knife on the denuded foliage, and often ob- 

 serve the flower-head cut in two as it was emerging from the crown 

 of the bulb ; and its exhausted appearance and flaccid texture are cer- 

 tain indications of its wasted energies, and the long period it would 

 require to recover them. Other kinds only bloom once from the 

 same bulb, producing oftsets at the season of growth, which are to 

 produce flowers in succeeding seasons. It is obvious that if vegeta- 

 tion is arrested during the formation of these bulbs, how great the 

 injury must be, and how the period of flowering may be retarded in 

 consequence. All these violations are perpetrated by the bulb- ga- 

 therers, who make a trade of the business. In reality, no kind of 



