HYACINTH OR IRIS? 57 



carrying an umbrella, an article much more used 

 in Holland than in England. The procession, to 

 which the umbrellas give something of dignity if 

 not solemnity, moves slowly along a field, each man 

 taking a row and examining the hyacinths one by 

 one for signs of the disease. With his umbrella he 

 shields the sun from his head and neck, the weather 

 usually seems to be hot on these occasions ; with 

 his tool he neatly and cleanly lifts the suspected 

 bulb from among its fellows. 



Hyacinth flowers are cut off before their beauty 

 is quite spent, so that they shall not come to seed. 

 Generally speaking, no bulb of any sort is allowed 

 to come to seed, unless of course that particular 

 seed is wanted for the raising of new varieties ; to 

 produce seed greatly exhausts the bulb. Hyacinth 

 flowers are cut close down to the leaves ; some- 

 times the cut blooms are scattered over the ground, 

 where other sorts of bulbs, as yet not showing 

 shoots, are growing, this to prevent the light sandy 

 soil from being blown away, leaving the bulbs 

 beneath bare. Some few of the flowers are sold ; 

 some, I have heard it said, are used for manure ; 

 but the great bulk of them seem just a waste pro- 

 duct. As yet nothing has been done with regard 

 to extracting the scent from them, though one 



