!.' BliEANIMGG KKOM VARIOUS .U1)I"K\ 



rot and consume, yet the middle and heart will remain >otind, and 

 in two or three years bear a flower again. Now for such defects 

 as happen to these roots alter they are set and put forth green 

 leave*; if any of them begin to fade and wither, open the earth to 

 the bottom of the root to find the cause, and if the root be moist, 

 and feel soft, it is past help ; but if any thing hard, it may be re^ 

 covered by putting soot and dry sand to the root, and covering it 

 as in the former, leaving the place something open that it may 

 drv down the sooner. In hot days take off the pot, and take up 

 the root as soon as the fibres are gone, and keep it in wool wet in 

 oil near the lire; last set it again after the manner of the former, 

 by this means many good flowers have been saved, which neg- 

 lected had been undoubtedly lost. And as we industriously 

 endeavour to recover such sickly roots of choice flowers, so pur- 

 posely we infect others more vulgar with sickness, by taking up 

 the roots a little before they come to flower, and laying them in 

 the sun, to abate their luxury, and cause them to come better 

 marked the year following ; this I have often done with strong and 

 lusty roots of ordinary flowers, and commonly found the success 

 answer my expectation in many, and some of them to come bo 

 well marked, that they might be taken for much better flowers 

 than they are, especially if a new name be put upon them, as some 

 flower merchants about London use to do." — Rea's Flora, p. 70. 



The experience of a practical man is always valuable, and the 

 above extract appears to me to contain some hints worth notice. 

 In regard to diseased Tulips I would suggest the trial of charcoal 

 instead of soot, as from its well known preservative powers it would 

 probably be more effectual in stopping disease, and moreover be 

 much more easily procured than wood soot. As to " infecting 

 Tulips with sickness " to abate their luxuriance, the mode recom- 

 mended might probably cause breeders to break the following 

 year; but it should only be tried on those the foliage of which 

 does not indicate the usual sign of breaking. Rea's remark on 

 the knavery of some "London Flower Merchants" was more 

 strongly amplified by Gilbert, in his Florist's fade Mecum, and 

 which, although published 100 years ago, is very applicable to a 

 certain class of Tulip-mongers of the present day. He speaks in 

 his epistle to the reader of " Mercenary Flower Catchers about 



