92 



PRACTICAL PLANT PROPAGATION 



soon after. Set in the ground again in October, the new bulbs bear 

 leaves in the following Spring. The second year those of the 

 'notched' class flower, while the others require still another season 

 of growth." 



NARCISSUS AND TULIP PROPAGATION 



Narcissus and Tulip propagation must in general be left entirely 

 to Nature (see fig. 36); no cutting of the bulbs can be done to 

 increase the production. Left to themselves each bulb produces 

 three or four bulbels, of which two or three develop to good size, 

 the old bulb disappearing. The following Autumn the young bulbs 

 are taken up, cleaned, and replanted. It thus takes two years to 

 get Narcissus and Tulip bulbs. 



BULBLETS 



Certain bulbous plants, as the Liliwn tigrinum, Dentaria bulbi- 

 fera, certain ferns, Ranunculus Ficaria, and the Multiplier or Potato 

 Onion, produce small bulbs in the axils of their leaves above ground. 

 These are bulblets. (See fig. 37.) They can be planted immedi- 

 ately after ripening and will multiply the particular plant true to 

 variety. L. candidum can be forced to produce bulblets. (See p. 155 ) 



CORMS 



Corms are much shortened 

 rhizomes or thickened bases of 

 stems, usually subterranean, 

 in which food is stored. A 

 corm differs from a bulb in that 

 the greater part of a bulb is 

 not stem, but scales, which are 

 really thickened bases of leaves, 

 the stem being merely a much- 

 flattened plate from which root 

 and bulb scales arise. Corms 

 also are covered with shells or 

 scales, but these are scarious or 

 dried, and are called husks or 

 tunics. These scales are like- 

 wise the bases of leaves, but 

 they are not thickened as in 

 bulbs. Botanically considered, 

 a bud or the potentiality for a 



Fig. 38. Gladiolus corm. The sketch 

 shows the method of producing new corms 

 above the old one. Between the two corms 

 small corms, cormels or spawn, are produced 

 (See page 93) 



