Hyacinth 



will be unsatisfactory. For a short time they should be placed 

 in subdued daylight, that the blanched growth may acquire a healthy 

 green hue slowly ; and they need to be kept cool in order that 

 they shall grow very little until a healthy colour is acquired. The 

 floor of a cool greenhouse is a good place for them when first 

 taken out of the bed and cleaned up for forcing. Another matter 

 of great importance is to place them near the glass immediately 

 their green colour is established, and to grow them as slowly as the 

 requirements of the case will permit. If to be forced early, allow 

 plenty of time to train them to bear a great heat, taking from bed to 

 pit, and from pit to cool-house, and deferring to the latest possible 

 moment placing them in the heat in which they are to flower. 

 Those to bloom at Christmas should be potted in September, those 

 to follow may be potted a month later. If a long succession is re- 

 quired, a sufficient number should be potted every two or three 

 weeks to the end of the year. Those potted latest will, of course, 

 flower in frames without the aid of heat. In any and every case the 

 highest temperature of the forcing-pit should be 70 ; to go beyond 

 that point will cause an attenuated growth and poverty of colour. If 

 liquid manure is employed at all, it should be used constantly and 

 extremely weak until the flowers begin to expand, and then pure 

 soft water should be used instead. No matter what may be the 

 particular constitution of the liquid manure, it must be weak, or it 

 will do more harm than good. The spikes should be supported by 

 wires or neat sticks in good time, and a constant watch kept to see 

 that the stems are not cut or bent, as they rapidly develop beyond 

 the range allowed them by their supports. 



Culture in Glasses. It is of little consequence whether rain, 

 river, or spring water be employed in this mode of culture, but it 

 should be pure, and in the glasses it should nearly but not quite 

 touch the bulbs. Store at once in a dark, cool place, to encourage 

 the bulbs to send their roots down into the water before the leaves 

 begin to grow. When the roots are developed, bring the glasses from 

 the dark to the light, in order that leaves and flowers may be in 

 perfect health. Let them have as much light as possible, with an 

 equable temperature, and provide supports in good time. Hyacinths 

 are often injured by being kept in rooms that are at times extremely 

 cold and at others heated to excess. Those who wish to grow the 

 bulbs to perfection in glasses must remove them occasionally as 

 circumstances may require, to prevent the injury that must otherwise 

 result from rapid and extreme alternations of temperature. It is not 



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