2 8 THE NURSERY-BOOK- 



a cross-cut bulb, with the adventitious bulbels. The mutilated 



bulbs are stored during summer, and are 



planted in fall or spring. The wounded 



bulbs produce very little foliage, but at the 



end of the first season the bulbels will have 



formed. The bulbels are then separated and 



planted by themselves in prepared beds. 



Several years are required for the bulbels to 



mature into flowering bulbs. Some of the 



strongest ones may produce flowering bulbs 



in three years, but some of them, especially 



those obtained from the hollowed bulbs, will 



_,, . , -, Fig 14. Cross-Cut 



not mature short of six years. This method Bulb 



of propagating hyacinths is confined almost 

 entirely to Holland. 



The scales of bulbs are often employed to multiply scarce 

 varieties. From ten to thirty of the thicker scales may be 

 removed from the outside of the bulb without serious injury to 

 it. These are treated in the same manner as single eye cut- 

 tings. They are usually handled in flats or propagating- 

 frames, and are pressed perpendicularly into a light and 

 loose soil half sharp sand and half leaf mould for nearly 

 or quite their entire length, or are scattered in damp moss. 

 Keep the soil simply moist, and for hardy and half-hardy 

 species keep the temperature rather low from 

 45 to 60 Slight bottom heat may some- 

 times be given to advantage. In from three to 

 ten weeks a little bulbel, or sometimes two or 

 more, will appear at the base of the scale, as shown 

 in Fig. 15. 



These pots or flats may be plunged out-doors dur- 

 ing summer if the planting was done in winter, or 

 Fig i ' ' Bulb- the scales mav be po tted off or transferred to the 

 Scale. open border as soon as rootlets have formed. It is 

 the common practice with most hardy species to 

 allow the scales to remain in the original flats during summer and 

 to cover them the next fall, allowing them to remain out-doors 



