HARDY AND HALF-HARDY GARDEN BULBS. 379 



We have now to say a few words about summer bulbs, 

 or tubers, which have not been mentioned in former 

 chapters. 



TIGRIDIA (Tiger Flower). This is a beautiful class of 

 Mexican bulbs, of easy culture, producing showy, spotted 

 flowers all summer. The most common varieties are T. 

 pavonia, rich scarlet, spotted with black ; T. conchiflora, 

 yellow, spotted with black ; T. speciosa, a hybrid between 

 these two species, and partaking of the character and color 

 of both. T. Wheelerii, a seedling from conchiflora. 



The " blue Tiger Flower " is not a Tigridia, but Phila- 

 callis plumbea. 



THE DAHLIA. This once popular flower is fast falling 

 into unpopularity, and will soon be consigned to oblivion. 

 It has seen its best days, and has been compelled to give 

 place to the Gladiolus, Hollyhock, and Double Zinnia. 

 It is hard to find what could have given the Dahlia its 

 popularity. It has no grace of growth or flower, is a coarse, 

 rank-growing and smelling plant, and beyond a certain 

 mechanical rosette arrangement of petal, has nothing to 

 recommend it. Its culture is simple. Set the tubers in 

 any rich, deep soil, and if the plants are not beaten down 

 by high winds, and the season is long, and no early frosts 



