March 24. i898. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



675 



even without heat, the labor and all 

 et ceteras have to be considered, and 

 the plants in the end may prove rath- 

 er expensive to the grower. 



The accompanying cut represents a 

 little plant in a 5-inch pot, last spring's 

 cutting; was grown altogether in a pot 

 and received no extra treatment, in 

 fact the little batch of plants was 

 really neglected until towards the fall 

 months, else the plants might have 

 been larger. The photograph was ta- 

 ken shortly after New Year's, when 

 only a few of the poorest specimens, 

 sparsely flowered, were left, still even 

 these have found purchasers since 

 that time. K. 



NERINES. 



In those we have a singularly beau- 

 tiful genus of greenhouse bulbous 

 plants, the handsome flowers of which 

 are produced in umbels on the top of 

 erect stems about 18 inches long, 

 which greatly enhances their value 

 for decorative purposes. No flower 

 that I am acquainted with shows up 

 to greater advantage under artificial 

 light than the subject of this illustra- 

 tion, the color of which is a beautiful 

 harmony of very intense scarlet and 

 yellow, which under strong light has 

 the appearance of having been frost- 

 ed over; in fact, all the varieties of 

 this genus have the same characteris- 

 tic to a greater or less degree. 



They are very free flowering, but 

 many growers have a difficulty in 

 flowering them satisfactorily. To be 

 successful with them the principal 

 cultural details are to give due atten- 

 tion to the full development of the 

 bulbs. The nerine will indicate its 

 intentions of starting into growth by 

 pushing up the flower spike when the 

 bulb is totally devoid of foliage. This 

 will occur in September or October, 

 and the leaves will soon follow, so the 

 plant will continue to grow through- 

 out the winter, when they should have 

 all the light and air possible to the 

 exclusion of frost. They enjoy abund- 

 ance of water at the root and over- 

 head, with occasional applications of 

 liquid manure, which should be con- 

 tinued right along until the plants 

 show signs of finishing their growth 

 by the leaves turning yellow. Then 

 the water supply may be diminished 

 until they ultimately dry off, when the 

 pots should be laid on their side, 

 where they are not likely to get wet, 

 and let the bulbs have the full benefit 

 of the sun for a few weeks. As the 

 plants have made all their growth 

 during the winter this ripening pro- 

 cess is quite essential to insure flow- 

 ers. 



Nerines do not like to have their 

 roots disturbed, nor do they require 

 much rootroom; they grow and flower 

 best when hard potbound. If three 

 bulbs are placed in a 5-inch pot, in 

 good maiden loam with the addition of 

 a little sand, they are good for 5 or 

 6 years, and even longer, as the off- 

 sets can be rubbed off and potted and 

 the parent bulbs go on increasing in 

 size. Each year as the flower spike 

 appears pick about one inch of the 



surface soil off with a sharp pointed 

 stick, give the ball a good soak in 

 water, and top-dress with a little 

 fresh material. 



The species of nerine has a wide 

 distribution. They are found in 

 South Africa, China and Japan, and 

 the species that the trade is most fa- 

 miliar with hails from the Island of 

 Guernsey. The following list are all 

 beautiful kinds, some of which are 



ance. If we take a pot full of soil and 

 add water to it in abundance it will 

 shortly begin to run out of the hole at 

 the bottom of the pot. The soil is 

 saturated and that which is escaping 

 is known as gravitation water and goes 

 down and out, because of its own 

 weight. In other words the soil can 

 hold only a certain amount and all in 

 excess necessarily flows away. 

 Let us begin the experiment in an- 



Nerine Fothergillia Major. 



garden hybrids: N. corusca major, 

 bright scarlet; N. elegans, pink; N. 

 elegans carminata, cerise; N. elegans 

 coerulea, shaded blue; N. Fothergil- 

 lia, scarlet; N. Fothergillia major, 

 scarlet and yellow; N. humilis splen- 

 dens, purple crimson; N. Plantii, deep 

 crimson; N. pudica, white; N. sar- 

 niensis, "The Guernsey Lily," rose; N. 

 uudulata, flesh color; N. venusta, scar- 

 let J. ROBERTSON. 



SOIL WATER. 



The water in the soil contains the 

 substance that, exclusive of carbon, 

 goes to make up the structure of plants. 

 A small portion of the carbon also 

 comes from the soil, but the great bulk 

 of it enters from the atmosphere where 

 the carbon is always present, although 

 in comparatively small quantities in 

 the form of carbon dioxide. In short 

 as the soil water is supplied with food 

 elements so is the plant fed, that is 

 growing upon that soil. It becomes, 

 therefore, every grower of plants to 

 consider the soil water. 



First let us look at it in its relation to 

 the soil, and then we will be the better 

 able to discuss its relation to the plants 

 that are drawing upon it for its susten- 



other way with a second pot of soil. 

 It is dry, as it is termed, and placed in 

 a flower pot and the flower pot is set 

 in a large saucer to which water is 

 added. Every grower knows what hap- 

 pens; the water is absorbed by the soil 

 and after a longer or shorter time it is 

 moist throughout. There is no grav- 

 ity water present, but there has been 

 much weight added to the pot of soil 

 by water that has risen through the 

 pores of the soil, just as kerosene rises 

 by the same law of capillary attraction 

 up through the wick of the lamp, or 

 the dry towel may become wet by be- 

 ing hung so that only one corner 

 touches the surface of water. This 

 kind of water, taken up and held as 

 moisture in the soil is called, from the 

 law that permits it, capillary water. 



But the soil with which we started 

 the last named experiment was not 

 absolutely dry. While it was dry as 

 dust to the hands there was already 

 there a considerable amount of water, 

 but in a condition not to be sensible to 

 the touch. This last is held so closely 

 by the surfaces of the soil particles as 

 not to be affected by either capillarity 

 or gravitation. A method of demon- 

 strating the presence of this third form 

 of water in soil is heat. When dry soil 



