318 PLAIN 1 AND PLEASANT TALK 



America. The bulb, or rather corm,* increases very rapidly, 

 and by a little attention one may obtain from a few, a very 

 large supply. They may be planted with good effect in 

 rows, in clumps, and in beds, but not singly. A sandy 

 loam, well mixed with leaf-mold, is their delight. We 

 usually remove the top soil, and then take out and reject 

 about twelve inches of the subsoil, making in all about 

 twenty inches depth ; return the top earth, together with 

 enough compost of leaf-mold, sand, and thoroughly 

 decayed manure, to fill it ; plant about four inches deep, 

 measuring from the top of the corm. When your plants 

 are growing, examine every day ; if you see a sawdust-like 

 matter about them, they need attention. On searching, a 

 perforation will be found in the stem. With a penknife slit 

 the stern down from the hole until you reach the worm 

 w T hich caused the mischief. If this course is not properly pur 

 sued, you will lose stem and root. With a thin strip of bass 

 matting, or a bit of green ribbon, the stem may be tied and 

 fastened to a rod for support. In door-yards, and in the 

 scanty grounds of city yards, clumps of ten or fifteen gladioli 

 would have a very beautiful appearance, especially if dif 

 ferent varieties, instead of being mixed, should be planted 

 in separate but contiguous patches. 



TUBEROSE. The beauty of its pure, white florets, but 

 especially the delightful odor of this fragrant flower, has 

 rendered it a favorite wherever it is known. It is very 



* Bulbs arc of two kinds : those which have a number of coats, or 

 skins, one within the other, like the hyacinth, which are called tunicatcd 

 bulbs ; those which consist of a number of scales, only attached to the 

 base, like the lily ; but what are called corms, are only a solid mass of 

 feculent matter, and which modWn botanists do not allow to be bulbs 

 but call underground stems. Corms do not require taking up so often 

 as bulbs; and when they are intended to remain for several years in the 

 ground, they should be planted from four to six inches deep at first ; as 

 every year a new corm Y ill form above the old one ; and thus, if planted 

 to} near the surface, the corm, in a few years, will be pushed out of the 

 ground. London. 



