314 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



mind these hyacinths grew and flowered in soil that had not been changed, except 

 with the addition of the dung, for fifty years or more. This places the hyacinths 

 in the first rank of bulbs for town gardens. My next operation was to take up the 

 bulbs from their temporary lodgings. This I accomplished by pushing a hand-fork 

 underneath the cocoa-nut fibre, and lifting up the bulbs in patches (being very 

 careful not to disturb the roots), and placed them gently on a hand-barrow for 

 convenient transport to the respective beds already prepared for them, where they 

 were planted out about nine inches apart and two inches below the surface. Every 

 bulb had by this time thrown up a remarkablystrong shoot about two inches above the 

 crown of the bulb. I then covered all over with half an inch of cocoa-nut fibre. I 

 luckily got all this done before the tremendous frost set in. I had taken the precau- 

 tion of placing over the beds a number of bent sticks, and during the severest weather 

 a mat was thrown on at sunset, and taken off at nine a.m. Only one variety was 

 planted in each bed, thus insuring uniformity in height, colour, and time of bloom- 

 ing, and presenting, when in flower, a most effective mass of colour. The varieties 

 grown were as follows : — Single reds and rose colours, Charlemagne, Fanny 

 Kemble, Johanna Christina; single blues and purples, Duke of "Wellington, Charles 

 Dickens, Baron Yon Tuyl, William the First ; single pure whites, Grand Vain- 

 queur, Victoria Regina, and Madame Tallyrand. 



The single varieties are for bedding purposes much more brilliant and effective 

 than the doubles. Nothing could be more satisfactory than these hyacinths ; not 

 one had failed. They were in bloom nearly a month, and produced spikes of 

 flowers six to eight inches in length. I may say, without vanity, I never saw 

 finer flowers out of doors. 



The crocuses were treated in the same manner as the hyacinths, and finally 

 planted out round the margin of the hyacinth beds, where, after flowering (which 

 did not last long, as the wet and cold set in just as they were coming into full 

 beauty), their foliage formed a pleasing relief to the brilliant colours of the 

 hyacinths. The varieties I find do best here, are the large Golden Yellow ; Prince 

 Albert, lilac ; David Rizzio, purple ; Ne Plus Ultra, blue, edged white ; Albion, 

 striped ; Sir Walter Scott, striped ; Cloth of Silver, striped ; and Queen Victoria, 

 white. As a rule, the blues, purples, yellows, and striped, are the best for smoky 

 localities in towns, the whites being somewhat more delicate. 



We now come to the tulips. Some of these I planted temporarily, one portion 

 in cocoa-nut fibre, the same as the hyacinths ; a second portion in a similar manner, 

 but in well-decayed leaf-mould ; the remainder I planted at once in the beds in 

 which they were to bloom. Those planted in the leaf-mould flowered better than 

 those in the cocoa-nut fibre, but those that were put directly into the flowering beds 

 did best of all. I planted these in the first week in November, having pre- 

 viously well-trenched the beds, incorporating a good dressing of decayed leaf- 

 mould (of which I find the tulip is excessively fond). The bulbs were placed three 

 to four inches deep, and four inches apart ; they began to bloom the middle of 

 April, and continued in magnificent display till the storm on the 10th of May 

 destroyed them. A few other tulip bulbs were planted in common border earth, 

 with a slight dressing of rotten dung, but they did very badly, as I found the 

 worms in the dung had eaten the roots ; but, probably, had I placed a small quan- 

 tity of silver sand round each bulb, it would have defended them from the attacks 

 of the worms, and the tulips would, perhaps, have succeeded better. 



Where it is inconvenient to plant the tulips at the proper time (November) in 

 the beds in which they are to flower, I should recommend their being potted into 

 60-sized pots, one bulb in a pot, the soil to be composed of two-thirds loam and one- 

 third well-decayed leaf-mould, and placed in some sheltered spot, and the whole 

 covered over to the height of eight or nine inches with cocoa-nut fibre. I would 

 here remark that, although cocoa-nut fibre is not a good material for tulips to be 

 planted in, it is most excellent for the purpose of covering them. The varieties 

 which flowered best here were Rex Rubrorum, double crimson-scarlet, a most noble 

 flower ; La Candeur, double white ; Tournesol, double yellow and red, a particu- 

 larly showy variety ; Couronne Purple, semi-double blood red ; Belle Alliance, or 

 Waterloo, single scarlet ; Y'ellow Prince, single pure yellow ; Pottebakker, single 

 pure white ; Royal Standard, single white, striped rosy crimson ; Duchesse de 

 Parma, single crimson and orange ; Morgen Zon, single fiery scarlet. I have tried 

 some sixty or seventy varieties, all more or less beautiful, but those enumerated 



