CTTLTUEE OF THE TUBEROSE. 149 



continuance of a low temperature is to be avoided, as the 

 Tuberose is a plant that succeeds only in a sub-tropical at- 

 mosphere. When not grown in a house specially adapted 

 for the purpose, the ordinary stove or hot-house will suffice. 

 When the flower stem is developed, they should on no con- 

 sideration be allowed to get dry at the roots, else a whole 

 or part of the flower buds will shrivel up. Whether the 

 bulb has been grown to flower in open air or forced in the 

 hot-house, after it has once flowered it is of no further 

 value as a flowering root ; the bulb having once flowered 

 will not flower again, and the only value it has is in the 

 offsets which it may have formed. These may be planted 

 out, as before described, to produce new bulbs for the suc- 

 ceeding season. 



The cultivation of the Tuberose as a winter flowering 

 plant has been practiced in this country only within the 

 past six or eight years, and as yet only in five or six es- 

 tablishments successfully. Many fail from the cause to 

 which is due the failure of almost all floricultural operations 

 too great a variation of temperature required by the na- 

 ture of the plant. Still the demand for flowers of such 

 rare purity and fragrance is such that it will stimulate 

 many others, doubtless, to exercise the necessary care in 

 their culture and produce profitable results. 



The variety mainly grown is the double one, Polianthes 

 tuberosa plena, but the single variety is very useful for its 

 earliness, blooming in the open ground two weeks sooner 

 than the double variety. A new variety, known as 

 "Pearl," of very dwarf habit and of flowers nearly 

 double the size of this older sort, will doubtless soon be 

 exclusively grown. 



The Gladiolus may be forced in winter by the same 

 methods as we recommend for the Tuberose. 



