DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 229 



of the spike to proceed in growing, to draw up the juices 

 from the earth, but remove their seed vessels as they ap- 

 pear, in order to throw the whole strength of the plant 

 into the hybridized seed ; observing that the first and 

 second flowers of a spike, if perfect, are more likely to 

 succeed in this operation than those of later bloom. 



It is probable that many varieties of the same flower, 

 now considered a species, have been thus produced natur- 

 ally ; certainly very many beautiful additions to the flow- 

 er-garden have been thus artificially brought into being. 

 It may be readily imagined how amusing this employment 

 is to the man of leisure, and to the gardener it has been 

 for some years a source of large profits." 



The Gladiolus is propagated by seed, or by offsets of 

 the bulbs. Large ones may be taken out of the earth and 

 kept in a dry place, but seedlings and small offsets should 

 be left in the pots of earth if possible, they being more 

 apt to dry up if removed ; they must, however, be kept 

 out of the reach of frost. 



The seed should be sown, as soon as ripened, in boxes or 

 pots, and placed in the green-house in a peaty soil, or it 

 mny be sown in March or April, in a hot-bed, with mod- 

 erate heat ; the seeds should be scarcely covered. When 

 the plants appear, and the rays of the sun are strong in 

 May, they should be shaded with mats. When the grass 

 of the plants is two inches high, they .may be repotted 

 and plunged in the ground in June, so that the first year 

 they may make the greatest possible growth. When the 

 grass begins to grow yellow in autumn, the pots should be 

 taken up and put in a dry warm place, and the earth re- 

 main upon the roots dry, during the winter ; they may 

 be planted out in the ground in May, after taking them 

 from the pots. The third year the greater part of them 

 will show flowers. 



I had prepared a descriptive list of about one hundred 



