BUL 



B U L 



dueed branchingspik.es of while flowers, grow- 

 ing in whorls round the stalks, with small 

 spaces between each. It has long, narrow, 

 spear-shaped leaves growing between the spikes, 

 but in the other sort they are naked. The 

 •leaves in this are much thinner than in the above 

 species, and have scarce any down on their under 

 side; the spikes of -flowers grow more erect, and 

 form a large loose spike at the end of every 

 branch. It is a native of the West-Indies. 



The third has a woody square stem : the 

 leaves are serrate, sessile, acuminate, and to- 

 mentose underneath: the flowers have a yellow 

 or orange colour, in close peduncled heads from 

 the axils two together on opposite sides of the 

 stalk and branches. It is a native of Chili; 

 and flowers in May and June. 



The fourth species rises with a shrubby four- 

 cornered stalk eight or ten feet high, covered 

 with a pale loose bark, and sends out many side 

 branches. The leaves are five or six inches long, 

 stem-claspinc;, acuminate, and downy on the 

 under side. The branches are terminated by 

 loose spikes of pale purple flowers, covered 

 with a mealy down. It is a native of the Cape, 

 and flowers in August and September. 



Culture.^— The two first species may be raised 

 by sowing the seeds, procured in their capsules 

 from the places where they grow naturally, in 

 small pots filled with light earth, in die spring, 

 covering them lightly, and plunging them in a 

 hot-bed, occasional light waterings being given. 

 The plants when sufficiently strong should be 

 carefuJlv separated, and planted out singly in 

 other pots, being replunged in the hot-bed, 

 and due shade, water, and air admitted. When 

 these pots begin to be too small, they may be re- 

 moved into others, and be placed in a refreshed 

 tan hot-bed, where they should constantly re- 

 main. They should have little water during the 

 winter season, but be kept warm. In summer 

 •much air and frequent refreshings of water, by 

 sprinkling the plants all over, are however use- 

 ful when the weather will admit. 



The other species may be increased by plant- 

 ing cuttings from the young shoots in pots of 

 light earth in the early spring season, plunging 

 them into an old hot-bed, and, when they are be- 

 come well rooted, removed into pots and placed 

 in the shade till newly rooted, proper shade and 

 moisture being given. They may then be placed 

 in a warm border till the approach of winter, 

 when they should be brought into the dry stove 

 or greenhouse for protection. In mild winters, 

 when protected from frost, it will sometimes suc- 

 ceed in warm sheltered borders in the open ground. 



The plants arc chiefly cultivated for ornament 

 and variety in the stove and greenhouse. 



BULB, a sort of large bud generated on 

 the broad caudexes of plants within or in 

 contact with the earth, and which shoot down 

 their new roots directly into the ground ; by 

 which circumstances they are distinguished from 

 buds, which aie formed above the soil in the 

 manner just described. 



These are likewise further distinguished ac- 

 cording to the manner in which they are con- 

 stituted, into tunicated bulbs, squamous bulbs, 

 and solid bulbs. The first sort is composed 

 of several coats, closely infolding each other, 

 as in the onion ; and the second is constituted 

 of different thin scaly plates placed over each 

 other, similar to those in fish; as in the lily; 

 while the third has a solid compact substance 

 without any coats or divisions, as seen in the 

 tulip. 



Bulbs, like buds, Dr. Darwin observes, may 

 be distinguished into leaf-bulbs and flower- 

 bulbs ; as " when a tulip seed is sown it pro- 

 duces a small plant the first summer, which 

 dies in the autumn, and leaves in its place one 

 or more bulbs. These are leaf-bulbs, which in 

 the ensuing spring rise into stronger plants than 

 those of the first year, but no flowers are yet 

 generated; in the autumn these perish like the 

 former, and leave in their places other leaf-bulbs, 

 stronger or more perfect than their preceding 

 parents. 



" This succession of leaf-bulbs continues for 

 four or five years, till at length the bulb ac- 

 quires a greater perfection or maturity, necessary 

 for seminal generation, and produces in its place 

 a large flower-bulb in the centre, with several 

 small leaf-bulbs around it.'' It is suggested 

 that this successive production of leaf-bulbs in 

 plants of the bulbous-rooted kinds before the 

 forming of a flower-bulb, is analogous to that 

 of the producing of leaf-buds on different trees 

 for many years previous to production of flower- 

 buds. Thus, apple-trees raised from seeds afford 

 only leaf-buds for a great number of years, but 

 afterwards produce both flower-buds and leaf- 

 buds. Hence it is conceived that the adherent 

 lateral or paternal progenv is the most easy and 

 simple, of course the first method of repro- 

 duction, and that the seminal progeny, for this 

 reason, is not generated till the more mature 

 age or more perfect state of the parent bud. 



The author of the Philosophy of Gardening 

 found, on dissecting two large roots of the onion 

 kind in full flower, that the stem of each of 

 them was surrounded bv the cylindrical pedicles 

 of six or seven concentric leaves; while the stem 

 itself issued from the centre between three large 

 new bulbs in one of them, and two in the 

 other ; all growing from the same caudtx, 



