186 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



natural medium for their growtli and usefulness. What should we say of 

 a propagator of roses "who should put in cuttings, and at once drive them 

 into growth by atmospheric heat and moisture,, without waiting till they 

 had callused and began to form root fibres ? We should say he had 

 adopted a killing process, and had better buy roses ready rooted than 

 attempt to obtain them in such a ridiculous fashion. But this is the way 

 the greater part of autumn planted bulbs are dealt with. They arrive in 

 this country in fine condition of ripeness, and begin to sprout in the 

 warehouses and seedsmen's windows, long before the public think of 

 making purchases. They form incipient roots at the base, and plump 

 green shoots at the crown, and these succulent growths are elaborated at 

 expense of the sap in the bulb, and, by the process of transpiration, the 

 atmosphere sucks the life out of them, through the tissues of incipient 

 roots and plump green shoots. When planted, they have to make roots 

 at the expense of the already exhausted bulb, and then have to recover 

 from those roots sap to sustain the growth above the bulb, which is 

 already in advance of the roots in its stage of development, and thus, the 

 balance between supply below and exhaustion above is never restored, 

 and the second season after purchase the bulbs are fit only for the 

 muck-heap. 



The laws of vegetable physiology plainly point out that all the hardy 

 bulbs which sprout in autumn should be in the ground before that effort 

 is begun. The equable temperature of the soil, and its moist condition at 

 six inches below the surface, provide the very best conditions possible for 

 promoting immediate root-action, and retarding the growth of the foliage, 

 two desirable results both for the bloom in the spring ibllowing, and for 

 the preservation and increase of the stock. But the bedding system stops 

 the way : such is the verdict of the gardeners. Nothing of the sort ; 

 here are materials for enlarging the resources of the bedding system ; 

 here are materials towards k?eping up the gaiety of the scene all the year 

 round ; and that, after all, is the end at which the bedding system aims, 

 though it is one it may never attain to. The excuse for procrastinating the 

 purchase and planting of bulbs is, that until the bedders are off there is 

 no room for them, and as there is a good deal to do in nursing the beddera, 

 and getting all in order for the winter, the bulbs are left to eat themselves 

 up in the seed shops, and every year the purchase must be made anew. 

 Observation and experience alike teach the possibility of preserving bulbs 

 from year to year with the same certainty as geraniums and fuchsias, and 

 in the interest of our readers we commend to them the proposal to purchase 

 once and adone with it, except for continually improving and enlarging 

 the collections. 



In our report of the exhibition at the Wellington I^ursery in the 

 Flokal World of May last, we remarked that the process adopted there 

 in the management of eai'ly tulips Avas one eminently profitable, as well 

 as floraily effective. That same process is applicable to bulbs of all kinds 

 that are to be used in beds and borders in the open ground for spring 

 decoration, and every one of the details included in it must be observed to 

 the letter, or the result cannot be realized. 



Instead of waiting till the bedders are removed, the whole of the 

 bulbs intended to be used out of doors, and in pots, should be obtained 

 and started into growth at once, say, for the sake of pi-ecision, in the first 

 or second week of September. By early piirchases the biUbs are obtained 



