FLOWER-GARDENING. 91 



* 



\vater to freeze, as it will burst the glasses, and often causes 

 the fibres to decay. Soft or rain water is generally pre 

 ferred. 



Forced bulbs are seldom good for anything afterwards. 

 However, those who wish to preserve them, may immerse them 

 wholly in water for a few days ; and then, having taken them 

 out, and dried them in the shade for a short time, they may 

 be planted in a good soil, in the garden, where they will some 

 times flower the next year. It does not clearly appear in what 

 way the water operates, when the bulb is wholly immersed ; 

 but it is certain that bulbs so treated increase in size and soli 

 dity, and have an incomparably better chance of flowering the 

 second year, than those which have not been so treated. Most 

 probably their total immersion enables them to obtain a greater 

 proportion of oxygen from the water. 



Nosegays should have the water in which their ends are in 

 serted changed, on the same principle as bulbous roots ; and a 

 much faded nosegay, if not dried up, may often be recovered 

 for a time, by covering it with a glass bell, or cup, or by sub 

 stituting salt water for fresh. Very fine Hyacinths have been 

 grown in a drawing-room, in the following novel manner: A 

 quantity of moss, classically called hypnum, and vulgarly fog, 

 was placed in a water-tight box, about eight or nine inches 

 deep, into which the bulbs were placed, at the end of Septem 

 ber, without mould, and duly watered ; and the result of this 

 experiment was highly satisfactory. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE 

 PLANTS. 



Having already exceeded my limits, I am compelled to be 

 brief in my observations on such ornamental plants as are 

 generally cultivated in hot and green-houses. This description 



