TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



149 



sized, plump-looking, fuU-crovviied bulbs should be chosen 

 and potted early in October. After potting plunge the pots 

 in old tan or coal ashes so as to cover them two or three 

 inches. They are to remain until removed in succession to 

 a warm room or house to forward the blooms. When grown 

 in glasses of water the dark-coloured glasses should be pre- 

 ferred, and the more opaque the better. November is soon 

 enough to put the bulbs in the glasses. First keep them a 

 week or so in damp sand or moss, then put them in the 

 hollowed top of the glass, and at first allow the water but just 

 to touch their base. Rain water, quite clean, should be used, 

 and this changed once a week. The glasses should be set in 

 the dark until the roots have gi'own an inch or two in length. 

 When the flower-stem is advancing two drops of spirits of 

 hartshorn may be put into the water each time it is changed 

 with advantage. Tye's Hyacinth-glasses are the best, and 

 these are provided with an elegant support for the stem. 

 Bulbs grown in water should be put in the ground directly 

 their flowers have decayed, for they derive considerable 

 strength from it, and, besides that, perfect their off'sets if they 

 have any. Hyacinths will grow well in wet sand, and when 

 it is covered with moss the plants look very prettv. 



HYDRANGEA. [Saxifragacege.] Hardy or half-hardy 

 deciduous shrubs, most of them showy plants. H. hortensis, 

 the most popular of this family, has been long familiar as one 

 of the commonest of market plants. Grown in the ordinary 

 way it is very showy, but with pains it is to be made a veiy 

 noble object. There are two very different ways of growing 

 it — the one to form a shrubby plant, the other a single stem 

 and a large flower-head. The latter is the favourite mode of 

 growing it for show, the aim being to produce as large a head 

 as possible. For this purpose take cuttings in July of the 

 strongest shoots, and plant them in sandy soil under a hand 

 glass: when rooted pot them in five-inch pots, in a compost 

 of one-third loam, one-third dung, and one-third peat, well 

 mixed together, and passed through a very coarse sieve. Such 

 of them as branch out will make pretty little shrubby plants, 

 whilst those whose growth is confined to a single stem will, 

 in all probability, form a large flower- head. When the 

 general set of plants drop their leaves, and indicate by their 



