THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS. 



225 



Ju7ie. — This month the foliage will in 

 general decay enough to allow of the bulbs 

 to be taken up and placed in the shade to 

 dry ; those, however, which are seeding, 

 will not be so far advanced, they will keep 

 growing until the seed is almost ripe ; of 

 course there must be exceptions in favor of 

 such plants. We have seen nearly every 

 flower in a bed seed, and the plants keep 

 growing till a late period; but if seed is 

 not desired, the pips of bloom should be 

 picked off as soon as the cloth is removed, 

 or the other coverings taken away. 



July. — This month they will have dried 

 sufficiently to be deprived of their decayed 

 foliage and stems, and be placed in bags. 

 Seeds may be gathered of such as are 

 standing out, and the bulbs taken up as 

 soon afterwards as the leaves die down. 



Augiis.t. — Turn out all the compost from 

 the beds, and lay it in ridges on each side, 

 to be turned over occasionally to sweeten. 



September. — Examine your bulbs, and 

 sort them for planting. Never plant a 

 doubtful one in the best bed, as it is obvious 

 that in an arrangement so uniform, a missed 

 bloom or a decayed plant would be a great 

 eyesore. 



OctoJier. — Plant the best bed and all out 

 beds and offset beds ; if there be any rea- 

 son for keeping bulbs out of the ground, a 

 month is no object, but this month is the 

 best ; from this time all the beds, especial- 

 ly seedlings, and beds of seed, must, at 

 any cost be kept clear of weeds. 



Noveviber. — Plant whatever may have 

 been kept out of ground till now, and sow 

 seed if not done already. Cover the seed- 

 lings and small offset beds with litter. 



December. — Repeat the November treat- 

 ment all through. 



Properties of the Hyacinth. — Some of 

 these are already appreciated a little, but 

 none sufficiently distinct. There are a ievf 

 of the present varieties which have long 

 spikes of flowers, and those very compact 

 — both of which are desirable — but they. 

 for the most part, have very ill-shaped pips. 

 There are others which have very prettily 

 formed pips, of a great size, but they are 

 far apart on the spike, and some hang awk- 

 wardly ; and those who exhibit the flower, 

 know but little as to what caprice is to de- 

 VoL. II. 29 



cide their fate ; but as the time when the 

 flower can be seen forced has arrived, and 

 the period for showing in pots is approach- 

 ing, we take the opportunity of defining a 

 little the properties which should be esteem- 

 ed ; as nearly all the points have been at- 

 tained in different flowers, there is every 

 reason to hope, that as soon as we persevere 

 in raising seedlings in this country, and 

 force the Dutch to follow the example, we 

 shall make rapid advances toward obtainino- 

 several properties in the same flower. We 

 commence with the pip. 



Each pip or flower should be round, and 

 not ragged. The petals should be broad, 

 thick, blunt at the ends, not pointed, and 

 reflex enough to throw up the centre well. 

 The footstalk should be strong, and hold the 

 flower out stiffin a vertical position, that is 

 facing the spectator, and by no means weak, 

 to allow the pip to hang with the face slop- 

 ing toward the ground. The lootstalks 

 should also be of a length, to make the pips 

 touch each other and no more. The pips 

 should be large, for unless the pips be 

 large, they cannot touch each other with- 

 out verj' short foot stalks, and the flowers 

 would be so close to the stem, that the truss 

 itself would be no size. Double flowers 

 should have the rows of petals above each 

 other very regularly imbricated, so as to 

 throw up the centre. The outer petals, 

 therefore, of a double flower, need not re- 

 flex, and should not reflex as much as a 

 single one, because the centre is raised by 

 the second and third rows of petals. 



The spike should be bold, round, com- 

 pact, and pjTamidal, with a number of 

 flowers at the bottom, gradually diminish- 

 ing to a single flower at the top. The 

 flower stem should be very strong and up- 

 right, and no part of it should be seen from 

 the lowest flowers to the top, in consequence 

 of the closeness of the pips to each other. 



The colours should be bright, clear, and 

 dense, whatever the shade ; and any better 

 approach to scarlet, blue or yellow, than 

 those shades we now possess, would be 

 highly esteemed ; flowers with dark eyes, 

 very clear outsides, and those with striped 

 petals, would be held to be better than 

 selfs in general, but would give no point 

 against form. 



