120 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 
return to the same soil in less than three years. Disease 
will always follow repeated plantings in the same soil. 
This is one reason why failures and loss of plants are so 
frequent. 
Deterioration in Gladiolus.—The question is 
often asked, ‘‘ Does the Gladiolus run out, or deteriorate, 
and does it ever revert back to the species?” Many 
amateurs have asserted that theirs have changed; that 
where two years ago they had none other than the best, 
now they had none but the poorest. We have ever held 
this to be impossible; but that a change in the general 
appearance of the bed might come because of the fact 
that some varieties increase rapidly by division, while 
others rapidly die out because of feeble constitutions. 
‘‘But,” says a great admirer of the Gladiolus, ‘‘I 
never had in my collection any such colors as are now 
the predominating ones in my garden; they are not as 
good as the original Gandavensis.” We replied that is 
simply an impossibility, unless aided by human hands. 
Two years after, he again commenced with an entirely 
new collection ; as yet he has not made his report, which 
we are fearful will be as unfavorable as the first. 
We will give the reasons for our fears. Three years 
ago we planted our stock of Adanson, one of the grand- 
est of the rosy-lilac kinds, consisting of several thousand 
corms, which we knew to be absolutely free from mix- 
ture. When they came into flower, to our surprise, 
more than one-half of the lot was as far from the type as 
it was possible to get, having a color we had never before 
seen, something like that of Psittacinus, while the form 
was not unlike that of Adanson. In this matter we 
could not be deceived, as we had never a flower of the 
kind on the place. That season, as well as last year, we 
marked every bulb that was true to its description, and 
this year the same change is as apparent as before. 
What is more singular, this interpolator is nowhere else 
