54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



open for three days and three nights, closing on the fourth day. 

 In their native haunts it is said they often bloom two or three times 

 a season, clusters of them springing into bloom immediately after 

 every shower. In the north, they must be treated as other tender 

 bulbs; they can be planted in May about three inches deep and 

 they flower about August. They should be lifted in the fall and 

 kept in dry soil. 



Coopcria Drummondi or evening star has a longer tube than the 

 rain lily, but the flat portion is not as wide. It blooms later and 

 the flower does not last as long. Eucomis punctata, pineapple 

 flower, does not seem to be very common, but it is really a most 

 satisfactory bulb; it is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, but 

 does very well in the open ground, treated as other summer bulbs. 

 It produces a wavy, crinkled foliage from the center of which shoots 

 a stem about two feet high with a head of greenish-white flowers 

 with dark centers; it is not hardy so must be lifted and stored. 



While I understand that the subject of the gladiolus has been 

 treated at a previous meeting of your Society, I am going to ask 

 that you bear with me for a few moments, as I feel I must touch 

 on this very important, if not the most important, group of summer 

 blooming bulbs. First as to the pronunciation. I am free to 

 admit that I incline to the old-fashioned way of gladiolus, and I 

 believe I have some good authorities to bear me out, but as I know 

 some of my best friends are on the other side, perhaps we will 

 have to compromise and adopt the language of the vendor on the 

 street, and just call them "glads." Whichever way we decide to 

 pronounce the name, they are a class of bulbs demanding our 

 attention now as never before, and with cause; for never before 

 were such beautiful and vivid colors seen in any flower, and I 

 believe that we are only on the threshold, so to speak, of what is 

 iii store for us in the way of color, size, and beauty in the gladiolus; 

 and where is there any class of bulbs or plants with the possible 

 exception of dahlias, that will give us such a protracted season of 

 bloom with so little care and attention. The bulbs can be planted 

 with safety just as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring, 

 and by planting in succession up to July, the blooming season will 

 extend to October freezing weather. 



The progress made in the development of this ' 'King of summer 



