140 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



The bulbs being still very small, they exhaust the soil 

 very little, so that the first year growers do not take the 

 trouble to take them up. But an amateur, who raised a 

 great many from seed, used to say he thought taking them 

 up every year certainly assisted their growth. 



After it has been eighteen months in the ground the bulb 

 has gained a certain consistency ; it is now composed of four 

 tunics, each of which encloses it entirely, the outside tunic 

 appearing brown and dry (as if the drying process had begun, 

 for this outer one has to shrivel away in the earth next 

 year). The leaf-shoot still looks thin and round like a rush, 

 but it holds itself straight, and has gathered strength since 

 last year. The second year (about the time it has to be 

 taken up) it has lost its outside tunic, but has still three left, 

 completely surrounding it, but within the inmost envelope 

 the base of the leaf-shoot or fan (which now shows a double 

 shoot) is already spreading and forming in the centre of the 

 bulb a tunic, like the tunics of the proper (grown) bulb ; 

 that is to say, it wraps it only two-thirds of the way round 

 its circumference. The roots have now strengthened. The 

 following year they are yet stronger. The bulb casts off all 

 its binders, the early tunics which enveloped it completely 

 (like a bandage). After this it enters into its mature state, 

 the leaves, instead of clinging together like a round rush, 

 separate, slowly detaching themselves and taking the shape 

 they are to preserve to the end, though every year they 

 increase considerably. 



From the time the bulb loses its first closed tunics it is 

 able to produce its flower, which it never can do while it 

 remains with closed tunics. The first flower has a long 

 feeble stem, which bears one, two, or three small blossoms, 

 but these are enough to show the sort of flower it is going to 

 be. If it is single it will remain a single always, neither 

 will its colour vary again, and it can be classed among the 



