NOVEMBER. 539 



out. of doors, is to cover them with soil three or four inches deep, if M'ith this, 

 opportunity is taken of the first snow in sufficient quantity, to heap it well 

 about the plants, and then on this throw over some long littery dung or 

 straw, to prevent melting till the weather opens in the spring, the tenderest 

 kinds will remain almost uninjured. The covering is then taken off, the 

 shoots pruned, a heavy dressing of well rotted manure applied, and they soon 

 commence growing, and an early and continuous flower is the result. The 

 varieties of the old China are the most continuous of all, and Blush China, 

 Crimson Ciiina and Agrippina, the most useful of the class. — [Counlnj Gen- 

 tleman, 1855, p. 287.) 



Cultivation of the Hyacinth. — There is nothing in the valuable 

 precepts upon hyacinth growing on a large scale, given the other day, 

 which is not perfectly applicable to the smallest operation, if the 

 principles that are involved are separated from the mere details of practice. 

 Those principles are — 1, never to use unsound bulbs ; 2, to provide a rich, 

 permeable, well-drained soil ; 3, never to cover the bulb with soil ; 4, not to 

 expose the buds to light or warmth until roots are protruded in abundance ; 

 5, not to keep the plants in the dark after the buds have made perceptible 

 progress. Let us examine these maxims separately in their relations to 

 growing hyacinths in water. 



1. The bulbs should be sound. The bulb of the hyacinth consists for 

 the most part of soft cells filled with organizable matter having a great 

 tendency to run into a state of putrescence. This tendency is much in- 

 creased by any wound or bruise, which enables water to pass freely among 

 the sofl tissues, without being gradually imbibed through the sides of the 

 cells, and altered by their vital force. It is further accelerated by the con- 

 dition of the water itself, which in bad management acquires an offensive 

 quality that increases any tendency to decay which may naturally exist in 

 the parts it touches. Perfect soundness of the surface is the only guard 

 against such accidents. 



2, When water is employed instead of earth, permeability is secured, 

 but little or nothing more. There is no drainage, that is to say no exchange 

 of exhausted for fresh water, nor any ingredient presented to the roots 

 equivalent to the ammonia, the phosphates, the carbonic acid, the alkaline 

 matter, present in a soil composed of wholly decayed leaves and stable ma- 

 nure, loam and sand. All that is provided for feeding the hyacinth is mere 

 Avater containing a little carbonic acid, and perhaps some salt of lime. 

 Such being the case, the hyacinth, instead of being fed by the soil in which 

 it grows, is mainly nourished by suckling itself. Nature stores up in this 

 plant a soluble material called organizable matter, upon which leaves ai:\(\ 

 flowers can subsist, just as bears are said to be supported in winter h^ ^fer. 

 sorbing the fat which they acquire in summer. The result of this firtifi,cial' 

 subsistence may be emaciated life, but must be anything rather than vigor- 

 ous health. It would seem that we must ascribe to this circnm.stance \Vk 

 part, if not wholly, that weak, languid, drawn-up, pallid condition which is 

 so usually characteristic of domestic hyacinths, fed upon water, 



Drainage may be imitated by a diurnal removal and renewal of W9.ter; 



