14 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 
prises. Socommon have the seedlings become that they 
are offered in immense quantities by the foreign florists, 
in mixtures, many of them as unbloomed seedlings. 
These we have seen in flower, in large numbers, and 
never saw anything more pleasing. In a house where 
there were several hundred in bloom, not a poor variety 
was to be seen, and some were exceptionally fine; there 
were no two alike. For purposes of decoration none 
other than seedlings need be sought. 
Propagation by Seed.—The seed should be sown 
as soon as ripe, as it does not long retain its vitality. 
In fact, the seed is, to all appearance, a miniature bulb, 
which does not change form when put into the earth, 
other than to lose the coating that surrounds it, but 
increases in size, like the parent bulb, fast or slow, 
according to the conditions in which it is placed. The 
better plan is to sow the seeds singly in thumb-pots 
of light loam, first securing good drainage; plunge the 
pots in clean sand, or ashes, at a temperature of from 60° 
to 65°. They should be kept in a moist atmosphere, 
and in partial shade. Under such conditions the young 
plants will make rapid growth. They need not be shifted 
from these pots until the bulbs are nearly, or quite, an 
inch in diameter, or until the pots are completely filled 
with roots, which will be in about a year. Then they 
should be changed into three-inch pots, using the same 
kind of soil, or any strong potting mold. In making the 
shift, all possible care should be taken to prevent dis- 
turbing the roots, as nothing else is so fatal to the Ama- 
ryllis as having its roots injured or bruised. Under 
favorable conditions, flowering bulbs can be grown from 
seed in two years. It is a common, in fact, the more 
general, practice, to sow the seed in pans or flats, and 
prick them out when the bulbs are about the size of 
large peas. We do not consider this plan a good one, 
because in pricking out, the roots are liable to injury, 
