173 
not too high, so that their blooms will show above it and 
will make a great show of beauty when these plants are 
not in bloom. Some of the varieties have such large and 
heavy heads of bloom that they will need astake to keep 
them from falling to the ground, especially in wet 
weather. Most of this species are natives of the Cape of 
Good Hope, and have many varieties. It is more culti- 
vated in America now than in any other country, and 
hundreds of fine hybrid varieties can now be found in 
‘the catalogues of parties making a specialty of this bulb. 
Although the Gladiolus multiplies itself from year to 
year, the way most adopted by all large growers is the 
system of 
RAISING FROM SEED. 
It is no more trouble to raise Gladiolus from seed than 
it is to raise any ordinary plant. With the simplest gar- 
den culture, there is an almost absolute certainty of suc- 
cess. Prepare your bed in Spring as for any hardy 
annual. Sow your seed, and cover to a depth of one 
inch; hoe as often as for other crops; keep them well 
weeded ; take up the bulbs after the first frost, store them 
in some dry place for Winter, and set them out again in 
Spring in rows as you would onion sets, and a good per- 
centage of them wiil flower the second year, and all of 
them the third season, and continue to go on increasing 
from year to year. In most of the Southern States this 
could be made a very profitable industry, and could be 
carried on in connection with the Tuberose culture now 
so generally done in many sections of the South. Parties 
in the North make this a paying business, and yet have 
not the fine advantages this Southern climate affords. 
INCREASE BY BULBLETS. 
The increase of valuable and handsome kinds is gener- 
ally effected by the little bulbs or bulblets that form at 
