278 JANUARY 



But if the time is one of fruition it is also one of 

 criticism, of weeding, of ruthless sitting in judg- 

 ment. Worthless varieties of bulbs have betrayed 

 themselves, and a bad mark must be placed against 

 their names. Plants which need more heat than 

 the greenhouse can supply must be got rid of. 

 Others which blossom late must be noted, that due 

 consideration may be given to the proportion of 

 their value for winter use. A plant, for instance, 

 which flowers in March is worth perhaps a tenth 

 part of one which flowers in January. Unless the 

 greenhouse space is practically unlimited, the former 

 should make way for the latter kind of plant ; but 

 it is easy enough, I find, to give oneself good 

 advice, and difficult indeed to accept and to act 

 upon it. Every winter I record a vow that I will 

 never again grow this or that variety of bulb, and 

 every summer the temptation of the growers' 

 catalogues proves too strong for me. Here and 

 now, for instance, I have three different kinds of 

 yellow tulip in bloom ; they are Chrysolora, yellow 

 Pottebakker, and Mon Tresor, and there is no 

 comparison between them in point of value. The 

 first comes a little smaller than the others, but in 

 the amateur's hands it is infinitely superior to them 

 in shape, texture, and habit. In these pages I 

 register a new resolve, which is the old that I will 

 grow for the future no single yellow tulip under 

 glass except Chrysolora, which is less subject to 

 vicissitude and to the ravages of fly than any other, 

 and generously gives me its best even in circum- 

 stances which the tulip as a species dislikes so 

 intensely as those attending its forcing. 



