14 



As to time of flowering in this country, the following seems 

 to be the order, though variations occur, and the exact date will 

 of course depend upon situation and special climatic conditions. 

 The first to appear is Vartani, followed after a long interval by 

 Histrio. Then come more or less together, sometimes one and 

 sometimes another being in advance, Danfordia, Bakeriana, 

 sophenensis, histrioides, and cyanea. Krelagei and purpurea 

 are somewhat later, and the so-called type, as a rule, flowers 

 the last. 



The cultivation of the reticulata group has chiefly to be 

 directed towards combating a disease, in the form of a minute 

 fungus, which attacks the bulbs when left in the ground, and 

 the presence of which, in the dry bulb, may be recognised by 

 the coats being splashed with black as if marked with ink. 

 When this disease makes its appearance the foliage prematurely 

 withers, and the bulb speedily rots away, leaving behind an im- 

 perfect husk filled with black powder. In any garden to which 

 the fungus has gained access, bulbs left in the ground soon 

 perish ; what one year is a beautiful clump full of bloom, may 

 next year be represented by one or two flowers only, or not even 

 by that. I am by principle adverse to too much meddling in the 

 garden, but, through successive heavy losses, I have been driven 

 to move all my reticulatas every year. I take the bulbs up as 

 soon as the foliage has died down, keep them for a while in dry 

 sand, and, before I replant them in fresh ground in July, go 

 carefully over them all, removing the coats which by their black 

 patches show signs of the fungus, and placing all really diseased 

 bulbs in a reserve ground by themselves. By this method I find 

 that I largely diminish the disease, though I have not as yet 

 wholly stamped it out. Sometimes one variety, sometimes 

 another, seems to succumb soonest to the enemy ; I do r|)t find 

 that any one kind permanently resists attack, but have in turn 

 lost patches of each kind. If I fancy one kind is disease-proof 

 because it stands several years, I am undeceived at last. 



Beyond this, and the selection of a sunny, sheltered spot, dry, 

 or at least not too wet in winter, no special culture is required. 

 The plants will thrive in sandy peat, but they will thrive as well, 

 or even better, in stiff clay. When I have received imported 

 bulbs, the soil attached to them has generally been some kind 

 of stiff loam, and when I have sought information as to the soil 



