154 A GEOCTP OF HAEDY BULBS. 



abundantly. They should be sown early on March, on a gentle heat, in pots of 

 sandy loam with a little peat. Only a few seeds should be placed in each pot, 

 as they do not bear transplanting so well as most plants, and when sufficiently 

 advanced, which will be about the middle of May, they may, after being 

 gradually inured to the change, be turned into the borders without any dis- 

 turbance of their fibres. Sown at the period we have named, they will usually 

 flower the first season. It may also be increased by cuttings, or, what is better, 

 slips of the short side branches, which will root in a warm sandy border, under 

 a hand-glass in summer ; during the cooler months, a slight bottom heat will 

 be necessary. 



The Abronia umbellata was introduced about twenty years back from Cali- 

 fornia; since which period three other species have been discovered in the 

 same locality, mellifera, pulchella, and rosea, though none of them are yet in 

 general cultivation in this country. The generic term is derived from ctbros 

 (Gr.), delicate, in allusion to the character of the flower; this Greek root 

 our readers will remember forms part of the designation of a very different 

 plant to the present one — the Hdbrothamtm. "We must add, by way of post- 

 script, that although the flowers of the Abronia are said to be fragrant, they 

 are, as far as our observation goes, only so in a very slight degree. 



A GROUP OF HARDY BULBS. 



Considering the small amount of trouble involved in the cultivation of hardy bulbous plants, 

 and the beauty of most of their flowers, it is surprising that they should not be more generally 

 sought after by all classes of Floriculturists. Their number is so considerable, that it would be 

 quite possible to form a bulb garden from which the other classes of plants should be excluded 

 though, undoubtedly, the most interesting effects result from their distribution among the usual 

 exogenous occupants of the beds and borders. A large proportion of them produce their flowers 

 at a season when they are rendered doubly valuable by the absence of most others ; but so far, 

 however, from being limited to this period, there is scarcely a month in the year in which several 

 interesting bulbs are not to be found in bloom. A certain number of the commoner species are, 

 it is true, met with in most gardens, but a much larger number are either entirely absent, or 

 confined to the collections of the wealthy. Of the forty or fifty species and varieties of Lily, for 

 example, how many are usually found occurring in the same garden ? and of the interesting genus 

 Narcissus, including perhaps 150 species, the same question may he put. 



The period for planting the hardy bulbs being close at hand, we have thought that it may 

 be useful to remind our readers of some of the most desirable of the numerous treasures that are 

 available for this purpose ; and, perhaps, with a view to assist the faculty of association, we cannot 

 do better than refer to them under their natural distinctions of Lily- worts, Amaryllids, and Irids ; 

 the first, as our readers know, being characterised by their superior ovary, six cleft perianth, and 



