" THE HYACINTH." 301 



bright, whether plain yellow, red, blue, or white, or variously inter- 

 mixed and diversified in the eye, which is thought to give additional 

 lustre and elegance to the Hyacinth. Strong bright colours are in 

 greater request, and bear a higher price than such as are pale. Under 

 bad treatment good Hyacinths will degenerate in two or three years ; 

 but in Holland they have been preserved perfect for nearly a century. 



Everybody knows that the bulb of the common onion is exhausted 

 by its flower stem, and that when it has performed its oviparous duties, 

 as ordained by Nature, there are no remains of the bulb left. Not so 

 with the Hyacinth ; there Nature works in a more complicated manner, 

 for whilst the stem is sent out of the earth to form its seed, the bulb is 

 forming a new germ or bud within the next coat or circle of the lamina ; 

 and thus, whilst the flower stem is exhausting the old germ or heart of 

 the bulb, a regeneration is taking place within the body for the suc- 

 ceeding year ; nor is this all, for as the Hyacinth possesses a viviparous 

 nature also, it throws off perfect plants from its side beneath the earth. 



"Who can look into these mysterious works of Nature without having 

 his mind enlightened, and his admiration increased towards the Omni- 

 potent Being, 



" "Whose sun exalts 



"Whose breath perfumes, and whose pencil paints 

 The Hyacinth." 



Some varieties of the Hyacinth do not so readily throw off young bulbs 

 as others, but require all the nourishment to form their flowers, and 

 support the seed vessels. In this case a simple expedient is resorted 

 to, if the variety be scarce and valuable. The base of the bulb is 

 slightly cut or notched in three or four places, which hinders the plant 

 from exhausting itself in the production of a flower stem, and at the 

 same time induces a tendency in the bulb to throw out off-sets at the 

 wounded places, and these off-sets soon become independent plants, with 

 all the character of the parent bulb. 



To raise Hyacinths from seed is doubly desirous, as it increases the 

 quantity and also the variety of this admired flower. Plants that have 

 a strong and straight stem, and a regular and well-formed pyramid of 

 bells that are semi-double, should be selected for seed. Ttiey should 

 not be gathered till they have become perfectly black and ripe, at 

 which time the pericarpium will appear yellow on the outside, and will 

 begin to open. The stem, with which the seed is connected, is then to 

 be cut off, and placed in a dry airy situation, but not in the sun, where 

 it may remain until the time of sowing, which is either about the end 

 of October or the beginning of March. The seeds should be sown in 

 pots or boxes filled with compost, as will be described. The seeds 

 should be as regularly sown as possible, and then covered with the 

 compost about half an inch thick. These pots or boxes should be 

 placed in a warm situation for the winter. They will never require 

 water or other attention, excepting to keep the boxes free from weeds 

 and the frost. At the approach of the second winter an additional 

 stratum of about half an inch of the compost must be spread over the 

 pots or boxes, and about the middle of July in the third year the bulbs 

 may be taken up, dried, and treated in the same manner as old bulbs 



