TUBEROSE. 



521 



TUBEROUS PLANTS. 



size only. In transplanting small seedling 

 plants and cuttings the utility of the trowel 

 is very great, for a hole may first be made 

 in the soil with it for the reception of the 



FIG. I. GARDEN TROWEL. 



plant, and the plant may then be lifted 

 bodily, with the soil about its roots undis- 

 turbed, and gently deposited in the hole 

 made for it. The prices of garden trowels 



FIG. 2. FERX TROWEL. 



are as follows: Light, from 6d. to is., 

 according to length ; strong, from gd. to 

 is. 2d. ; best, from is. to 2s. Fern trowels 

 are is. 6d. each, or in leather cases, 2s. 



Tu'be'rose (/. ord. Hemerocallid'eae). 

 A bulbous-rooted plant from the East 

 Indies ; flowers white, very odoriferous. 

 They require to be started in a pit. In 

 January plant the bulbs singly in very 

 small pots in sandy loam ; plunge them in 

 a pit of moderate heat ; give little or no 

 water till they have made a start, then water 

 sparingly. When they have filled their 

 pots with roots, shift them and re-plunge 

 them until they show bloom, when they 

 may be removed to the greenhouse, where 

 they will last in flower about two months. 



Tuberous Plants, Propagation 

 of. 



Bulbous-rooted plants may be propa- 

 gated by seeds as well as by offsets 

 in the form of bulblets or little bulbs, 

 for the term is by no means to be 

 restricted to tiny bulbs formed in the 

 axils of the leaves of plants, as some are in- 

 clined to think, and tuberous plants also 



are propagated by seeds as well as by means 

 of their tubers. With such plants, how- 

 ever, propagation by seed leads to the pro- 

 duction of new varieties, while propagation 

 by bulb or tuber must of necessity be 

 resorted to in order to ensure the main- 

 tenance of the same variety. Thus, new 

 varieties of the potato are produced by 

 hybridisation from seeds, but if any variety 

 raised from seed exhibits qualities which 

 render its preservation and propagation 

 desirable, this must be effected by offsets 

 from its tubers. The dahlia is a tuberous 

 plant, which is increased by offsets from 

 tubers, or even by cuttings of sprouts from 

 tubers, but new varieties must be raised 

 from seed. Tubers, a term obtained from 

 the Latin tuber, a hump or protuberance, 

 from tumeo, I swell, are expansions of 

 underground stems studded here and there 

 with eyes or buds, and stored with starchy 

 or feculent matter, which affords nourish- 

 ment to the buds until their root growth is 

 ufficiently progressed to admit of their 

 deriving support direct from the soil. The 



turnip, parsnip, carrot, beetroot, and radish 

 should be termed tuberoids rather than 

 tuberous roots ; they resemble genuine 

 tubers in many points, but they are not re- 



