244 " Cornell Extension Bulletin io 



in May he prefers seed beds. N. L. Crawford scatters the seeds in three- 

 foot rows, six inches wide, covering the soil deeply with leafy boughs 

 until the sprouts appear. He protects the seedlings with a cheesecloth 

 screen, placed about one foot above them, during the heat of the day. 

 Burbank sows his seed both in beds and in boxes. Huntington keeps 

 his seedlings under lath screens. Wilmore drills his seed in trenches, , 

 which are made ten inches deep to allow for irrigation and hoeing. Black 

 covers his seed with a layer of sandy soil. M. Crawford believes straw 

 to be the best material to use for covering in order to insure germination. 



About 1906 Frederick Roemer, of Quedlinburg, Germany, originated 

 what he called a new group, giving to it the name Gladiolus praecox. By 

 some growers the varieties in this group are called Annual gladioli. This 

 term should not be used, since annuals are plants that live for only one 

 year, whereas the meaning in this case is that the plants are brought 

 into bloom in one year from seed. The praecox strain is obtained by 

 intercrossing the earliest plants of G. gandavensis, G. Lemoinei, G. Childsii, 

 and G. nanceianus. The seeds (Anonymous reference, 1907 d, should be 

 started in a temperate frame the first of March. They germinate 

 in from three to four weeks. As growth advances and weather permits, 

 ventilation should be given in order to get good, sturdy plants. A trans- 

 planting, although not essential if the seeds have been sown thinly, is of 

 great benefit. Soon the seedlings are strong enough to stand feeding, 

 and a mulch of bone dust or sheep manure should be applied. During 

 the first year the corms attain the size of a crocus bulb; the second year 

 they are as large as those usually offered in commerce. Two-years-old 

 corms produce two or more spikes of normal size. 



Burpee seems to have evolved a strain much like the praecox, which he 

 calls Fordhook hybrid gladioli. Some of these seedhngs seem to be very 

 excellent both in color and in size. It is of great value to get such precocious 

 varieties. 



Kerr (19 13) prefers to sow the seed where it can be left to bloom, as 

 the seedlings do not transplant well. He states that great pains should 

 be taken to give the bed a careful preparation before planting the seeds. 



THE CORM 



The underground stem of the gladiolus is not a bulb, but a corm. 

 A corm is defined as a thickened base of a stem, usually subterranean, 

 in which food is stored. It differs from a bulb in that the greater share 

 of the bulk of a bulb is not stem, but bulb scales, which are really thickened 

 bases of leaves, the stem being merely a much-flattened plate from which 

 roots and bulb scales arise. Corms also are covered with tunics, or scales, 



