262 FLOWER GARDEN. 



foliage within half an inch of the bulb, but leaving the 

 fibres untouched, to lay the bulbs sideways on the ground, 

 covering them with half an inch of dry earth. After three 

 weeks, they are again taken up, cleaned, and removed to 

 the store room. In this country, it is more common to 

 allow them to stand till the leaves be withered, and then to 

 dig them up at once. In the store-room the roots should 

 be kept dry, well aired, and apart from each other. 



"Where forcing is practiced, a few hyacinths may be 

 forced into deep flower-pots filled with light earth, and, 

 when coming into flower, transferred to the green-house, 

 which they enliven at the most dead season of the year. 

 In chambers, they are grown in water-glasses made for the 

 purpose ; or, with still greater advantage, in boxes filled 

 with damp hypnum-moss. 



New varieties of trvacinths are procured by sowing the 

 seed ; but this is a tedious process, and seldom followed 

 in this country. The established sorts are propagated by 

 offsets or small bulbs, which form at the base of the parent 

 bulb. Almost all the hyacinths cultivated in this country 

 are imported from Holland, and the quantity of roots an- 

 nually introduced must be very great. 



The Tulip, Tulipa Gesneriana, is a native of the East, 

 whence it was introduced into Europe about the middle of 

 the sixteenth century. Gaudy as it is, it has no proper 

 corolla, but only a calyx of six colored sepals. About the 

 year 1635, the culture of the tulip was very engrossing; 

 and, indeed, the rage for possessing choice sorts had become 

 so great in Holland as to give rise to a strange species of 

 gambling, known to the collectors of literary and scientific 

 anecdotes by the name of Tulipo-mania, which has tended 

 to bring unmerited discredit on this fine flower. At pre- 

 sent, the finer tulips are mostly of moderate price, and 



