FLOWER-GARDENING. 91 



* 



water to freeze, as it will burst the glasses, and often causes 

 the fibres to decay. Soft or rain water is generally pre- 

 ferred. 



Forced bulbs are seldom good for anything afterwards. 

 However, those who wish to preserve them, may immerse them 

 wholly in water for a few days ; and then, having taken them 

 out, and dried them in the shade for a short time, they may 

 be planted in a good soil, in the garden, where they will some- 

 times flower the next year. It does not clearly appear in what 

 way the water operates, when the bulb is wholly immersed ; 

 but it is certain that bulbs so treated increase in size and soli- 

 dity, and have an incomparably better chance of flowering the 

 second year, than those which have not been so treated. Most 

 probably their total immersion enables them to obtain a greater 

 proportion of oxygen from the water. 



Nosegays should have the water in which their ends are in- 

 serted changed, on the same principle as bulbous roots ; and a 

 much faded nosegay, if not dried up, may often be recovered 

 for a time, by covering it with a glass bell, or cup, or by sub- 

 stituting salt water for fresh. Very fine Hyacinths have been 

 grown in a drawing-room, in the following novel manner: A 

 quantity of moss, classically called hypnum, and vulgarly fog, 

 was placed in a water-tight box, about eight or nine inches 

 deep, into which the bulbs were placed, at the end of Septem- 

 ber, without mould, and duly watered ; and the result of this 

 experiment was highly satisfactory. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE 

 PLANTS. 



Having already exceeded my limits, I am compelled to be 

 brief in my observations on such ornamental plants as are 

 generally cultivated in hot and green-houses. This description 



