294 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



of increasing the stock. We, therefore, make it the subject of a 

 separate paper, a proceeding happily justified by its high character 

 as a decorative plant and its rapidly increasing popularity. 



The advance of this noble flower in popularity is a matter for the 

 greatest satisfaction. It is strange that its capabilities should have 

 been known to cultivators years and years before they took it in 

 hand in earnest ; but they have clone this at last, and our autumn 

 displays are made peculiarly splendid with its rich varieties of 

 colour ; and its graceful outlines afford an agreeable relief to the 

 predominance of ungraceful subjects which then usually prevail. 

 One great and glorious advantage of its habit and constitutional 

 character is that it will ripen seed in our gardens, and to this may 

 be added that it is not a difficult subject to hybridize, so that the 

 raising of seedlings — the greatest charm of all the charms of floricul- 

 ture — is within the range of the Englishman's garden pleasures. 



In the cultivation of the gladiolus, the matter of first inq^ortance 

 is the kind of soil required. In constitution and requirements the 

 gladiolus stands exactly midway between the ixia and the crocus. 

 Like those useful members of the Iridaceous order, it has a root 

 which, in botanical language, is called a " corm," and which never 

 flowers more than once. While growing aboveground, the corm is 

 forming duplicates of itself in the ground below. It is to the 

 interest of the grower not only to promote the development of 

 the leaves and flowers, but also of the offsets, for these are his stock 

 in trade, and if he does not save them in good condition, he must 

 buy again : but if his system of cultivation is perfect, he needs 

 but a first start in the roots that are desirable, and he may increase 

 his stock from year to year ad libitum. 



In our experimental garden gladioli have been grown in every 

 kind of soil — in peat, in common garden loam, in land heavily 

 manured, in hungry sand, and in carefully prepared mixtures. It 

 is evident by their behaviour that they are not so particular as to soil 

 as is generally supposed. Downright drought and starvation are 

 ruin to them ; excess of manure is equally destructive ; but in any 

 free and moderately generous soil they grow well, flower freely, 

 and perpetuate themselves in useful progeny. The result of much 

 observation and frequently repeated experiments is that peat is 

 favourable to a good bloom, but not to a fair development of offsets ; 

 that heavy damp soil is unfit for them, but is easily improved by the 

 addition of leaf-mould and thoroughly rotten manure ; that sandy 

 road-drift is first-rate to ameliorate any kind of stubborn stuff; but 

 that the best soil of all is just such as Lilium lancifolium thrives 

 in, consisting of bits of turf, fibrous loam, fibrous peat, leaf-mould, 

 rotten manure, and sharp sand, in about equal proportions. This 

 is free, porous, water will not readily lodge in it, yet it does not 

 become dry quickly, as is the case with sandy peat, and it is full of 

 nourishment. A few years ago it was the prevailing opinion that 

 animal manure, such as rotten dung, was quite unfit for them. This 

 was a mistake, though not quite founded on fallacy. The fact is, an 

 excess of manure, or rank manure, or any such powerful stimulus as 

 a rose or a cauliflower would accept with relish, is pretty sure to 



