154 PBACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



dried, and stored in some cool but dry place, to be again 

 planted in October. It is essential to lift up and dry all 

 such bulbs, else they will grow meagerly the succeeding 

 season. In Europe, Ranunculuses and Anemones are 

 grown to great advantage, planted in the same manner as 

 we plant Hyacinths and Tulips, but our winters are too 

 severe for them, so that they are rarely seen in good con- 

 dition, except when grown under the protection of a cold 

 frame, and for this reason are but little cultivated. 



Nearly all these bulbs also may be grown as pot plants, 

 for the green-house or parlor, particularly the Hyacinth, 

 and as the treatment of them all is nearly alike, we will 

 briefly give it. For pot culture the best bulbs should 

 always be selected ; the soil used is about one part decom- 

 posed cow or horse manure, to two parts sandy loam, 

 well mixed by riddling through a coarse sieve. 



The pots used should be from 5 to 7 inches in diameter ; 

 the mould should be placed in them rather loosely to the 

 rim, the bulb pressed down so that only about one-third of 

 it remains above the top of the soil; the pot is then struck 

 smartly on a bench so as to give the soil the proper degree 

 of firmness, which will bring it down to an inch or so be- 

 low the rim of the pot. Water freely, when potted, to 

 still further settle the soil. The pots should now be placed 

 in some situation where it is cool and dark, so as to en- 

 courage a strong development of roots before the bulb 

 starts at the top ; such a situation may be formed by cov- 

 ering the pots with four or five inches of sand in a cool 

 cellar, under the stage of a green-house or in a cold vinery, 

 still enveloping them in soil or sand. If none of these 

 conveniences is at hand, the pots may be pitted in a 

 trench in the open ground, covered over with soil, and 

 sufiicient litter placed above that to keep out the frost, 

 so that they can be got at when wanted. Hyacinths thus 

 treated will have made sufficient roots by the 1st of Octo- 

 ber to admit of their being placed in the light by the middle 



