128 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



is so gradual that it is impossible to see where the fleshy 

 substance of the bulb begins to change into the suberous 

 quality of the leaves, and yet there is a very marked differ- 

 ence between the bulb and its leafy scales ; they are, however, 

 an undetachable whole, and you cannot pull off the inner 

 tunic leaves of the hyacinth from the base, as you can pull off 

 the leaves of an artichoke. 



As soon as the bulb is taken from the ground it begins to 

 grow and increases rapidly during the three months it lies on 

 the shelf, and all this time it lives on the sap-nourishment 

 accumulated by it when in the earth. The sap concentrated 

 in the bulb can preserve it for a great length of time, but it 

 is not quite sufficient to enable the bulb to finish all the 

 work it has to do, and if it flowers it will not have strength 

 enough to bring its seeds to maturity. (Saint-Simon here 

 observes that this is not attributable to the bulb having no 

 roots, but to its inward indisposition.) 



Some people imagine that a bulb which has been kept 

 from flowering can reserve itself for the following year. 

 Many such experiments have been made, and bulbs have 

 been kept back on the shelves and have not been allowed 

 to flower; they have invariably perished, and, growers say, 

 scarcely a year passes that they have not tried the experi- 

 ment, they have lost every bulb which was not put into 

 the ground. As a rule the sap in a bulb will be sufficient 

 nourishment during its ordinary growth till January or 

 February, but after that it will begin to grow mouldy and 

 go bad. The moment it is put in earth or over water, in the 

 proper season, the bulb, which is just beginning to be ex- 

 hausted, pumps up sap so vigorously that it begins at once 

 to throw out roots from almost the first day, and growers 

 dare not move them again, even a few hours after they have 

 been put in, to send them away, however carefully packed, 

 even a short distance, for fear the fresh moisture thev have 



