> ee 
HYACINTEUS. 
2D 
5 HYDRANGEA. 
the glass inverted over the p:i in 
which the flowei is grown, aid only 
turned and the glass filled up with | 
water after the flower has expand- 
ed, the flower-pot being removed, | 
and the bulb wrapped in wet moss. 
Sometimes another flower appears 
glass ; but this is grown in another 
flowerpot in the usual way, and 
only removed to the glass when it 
is wanted to produce the proper 
effect. 
not be considered in good taste, 
particularly at the present day, 
Deceptions of this kind can- | 
| room, 
growing from the other end of the 
|the leaves have decayed. 
when people are so much better | 
educated than formerly. Hyacinths | 
flowered in water are seldom good 
for much afterwards ; nevertheless, | 
ifthe leaves are carefully preserved, 
and the plants, immediately that | 
they have done flowering, are plant- 
ed in a nursery-bed, they will re- 
cover their vigour in two or three 
years. It is also said that sinking 
the bulb entirely in water after it | 
has done flowering invigorates it, 
and will enable it to flower the 
second year; but I have never had 
an opportunity of proving this. A 
very small portion of common salt 
added to the water is said to acce- 
lerate the growth of Hyacinths, and 
to give a deeper green to their 
leaves; and keeping the water 
warm, say at a temperature of 60°, 
is also said to promote their growth. 
It must however be remembered, 
that too much salt will kill the plants. 
Growing Hyacinths in pots of 
soil requires no particular care. To 
ensure a vigorous growth, the pots 
ought to be deeper than usual, and 
they need not be much wider at the 
top than at the bottom. The soil 
ought to be a sandy loam, mixed 
with rotten leaves or dung so thor- 
oughly decayed as to have become 
a kind of mould, and the pots ought 
to be well drained. When first 
planted, which ought to be in Sep- 
tember, or any period between that 
22 
month and February, the bulbs may 
be kept in a cool place, and cover- 
ed with soil or rotten tan, till the 
buds have begun to move; when 
the pots may be taken to the green- 
house or the windows of a warm 
and if the soil be watered 
with warm water they will grow 
so much the faster. When the 
plants have done flowering, they 
may be turned out of the pots, with 
the balls of earth unbroken, into 
the common soil; and the bulbs 
may be taken up and dried when 
Bulbs 
which have flowered in pots seldom 
flower vigorously the second year ; 
and unless the amateur has abun- 
dance of room for a nursing-bed, and 
leisure to manage it, it is better to 
throw away at once bulbs which 
have been flowered either in pots or 
in water-glasses. 
Hypra’ncea. — Sazxifragee. — 
There are several kinds of Hy- 
drangea, most of which are Amer- 
ican shrubs, which are quite hardy 
in British gardens. The kind best 
known, however, and which is eall- 
ed the Hydrangea, par excellence, 
is a Chinese shrub, which 1s only 
half-hardy in England. Botanists 
call it Hydrangea Horténsia, the 
specific name being given in honour 
of a French lady, whose Christian 
name was Hortense; and though 
it is now so common, it has not 
been introduced much more than 
fifty years; the first plant of it 
grown in Britain having been im- 
ported from China by Sir Joseph 
Banks, in 1789 or 1790, about the 
same time as the tree Peony. The 
Hydrangea, though nearly hardy, 
is generally considered as a green- 
house or window plant; and it is 
admirably adapted for the latter 
situation, as it is scarcely possible 
to give it too much water, though 
water may be withheld from it for 
several days without killing it—the 
plant reminding its possessor of its 
