HYACINTH 293 



blanched growth may acquire a healthy green hue slowly, and they 

 need to be kept cool in order that they shall grow very little until a 

 healthy colour is acquired. The floor of a cool greenhouse is a good 

 place for them when first taken out of the bed, and cleaned up for 

 forcing. Another matter of great importance is to place them near 

 the glass immediately their green colour is established, and to grow 

 them as slowly as the requirements of the case will permit. If to be 

 forced early, allow plenty of time to train them to bear a great heat, 

 taking from bed to pit, and from pit to cool-house, and deferring 

 to the latest possible moment placing them in the heat in which 

 they are to flower. Those to bloom at Christmas should be potted in 

 September, those to follow may be potted a month later. If a long 

 succession is required, a sufficient number should be potted every two 

 or three weeks to the end of the year. Those potted latest will, of 

 course, flower in frames without the aid of heat. In any and every 

 case the highest temperature of the forcing pit should be 70; to go 

 beyond that point will cause an attenuated growth and poverty of 

 colour. If liquid manure is employed at all, it should be used con- 

 stantly, and extremely weak, until the flowers begin to expand, and 

 then pure soft water should be used instead. No matter what may 

 be the particular constitution of the liquid manure, it must be weak, 

 or it will do more harm than good. The spikes should be supported 

 by wires or neat sticks in good time, and a constant watch kept to 

 see that the stems are not cut or bent, as they rapidly develop beyond 

 the range allowed them by their supports. 



CULTURE IN GLASSES. It is of little consequence whether rain, 

 river, or spring water be employed in this mode of culture, but it 

 should be pure, and in the glasses it should nearly but not quite 

 touch the bulbs. Store at once in a dark, cool place, to encourage 

 the bulbs to send their roots down into the water before the leaves 

 begin to grow. When the roots are developed, bring the glasses from 

 the dark to the light in order that leaves and flowers may be in per- 

 fect health. Let them have as much light as possible, with an 

 equable temperature, and provide supports in good time. Hyacinths 

 are often injured by being kept in rooms that are at times extremely 

 ,cold, and at others heated to excess. Those who wish to grow the 

 bulbs to perfection in glasses, must remove them occasionally as 

 circumstances may require, to prevent the injury that must other- 

 wise result from rapid and extreme alternations of temperature. It 

 is not desirable to introduce to the water any stimulating substances, 

 but the glasses must be kept nearly full of water by occasionally 



