782 



HYACINTHUS 



HYBRIDS 



1110. Roman Hyacinth. 



DOUBLE RED : 



Bouquet Tendre. Crimson. 

 Noble par Merite. Deep rose. 



SINGLE LILAC: 



Haydn. Lilac-mauve. 

 SINGLE YELLOW: 



Ida. Pure yellow. 



King of the Yellows. Deep yellow. 



DOUBLE YELLOW: 



Goethe. Bright yellow. 



Miniature Hyacinths, or "Dutch Romans," are small- 

 sized bulbs of the ordinary Dutch Hyacinths, They are 

 excellent for growing in groups in bowls, pans or flats, 

 planted close together and treated just like the large 

 Hyacinths when grown in pots. 



Culture in Glasses. Some of the single Hyacinths 

 may be grown very satisfactorily in water. Special 

 glasses for the purpose can be bought from the seeds- 

 men. They should be filled with pure water and the 

 bulb so placed that its base barely touches the water. 

 They are stored in a dark, cold closet or cellar till the 

 roots are developed, and then brought in to the light. 

 An airy, sunny situation and a temperature of about 

 60 regularly maintained will insure the best results. 

 The glasses should be kept filled by adding water occa- 

 sionally as required. The following varieties are es- 

 pecially suited for glasses : 



Charles Dickens. Pink. 

 Lord Macaulay. Deep rose. 

 Mina. Pure whrte. 

 L'Innocence. Pure white. 

 Von Schiller. Dark red. 

 Grand Lilas. Light blue. 



Charles Dickens. Blue. 

 Baron van Thuyll. Deep blue. 

 Mr. Plimsoll. Fine blush. 

 Obelisque. Yellow. 

 Moreno. Deep rose. 

 Sir. Wm. Mansfield. Mauve. 



Roman Hyacinths. Instead of one large truss from 

 each bulb, the Roman Hyacinth produces three or four 

 smaller but more graceful flower-spikes. The bulbs ar- 

 rive in America in August, and by successive pottings 

 they may be had in flower from November till May. 

 They require the same forcing treatment as the larger 

 Hyacinths, but three or four bulbs may be planted in a 

 pot. The florists use wooden flats instead of pots, set- 

 ting the bulbs close together, 40 or 50 in a flat. By rea- 

 son of its beauty and exquisite fragrance, its earliness 

 and easy culture, the white Roman Hyacinth is the most 

 popular of our winter-blooming plants. Several mil- 

 lions of these bulbs are grown annually by the florists 

 of our large cities for winter cut-flowers. 



The Propagation of Hyacinths. With the exception 

 of the Roman Hyacinths (which come from the south of 

 France), the world's supply of Hyacinth bulbs is pro- 

 duced in Holland. The soil and climate of that country 

 seem to be peculiarly suitable for bulb-growing, which 

 has been one of the leading industries there for 200 

 years. The bulbs intended for next year's market are 

 planted in October in carefully prepared, richly manured 

 land, and protected over winter by a thick covering of 

 reed or litter. The flowers are cut when in full bloom 

 in the spring. By July the bulbs are fully ripened, and 



are taken out of the ground by hand, dried, cleaned and 

 assorted into three grades of quality, according to size 

 Early in August they are ready for shipping. Over- 

 grown or unshapely bulbs are reserved for propagating. 

 As soon as these are taken out of the ground, three 

 deep cross cuts are made with a sharp knife in the bot- 

 tom of each bulb. They are then set out, bottom up- 

 wards, and covered with loose soil for two or three 

 weeks, during which time the cuts open out and the 

 wounds are healed. They are then taken up and kept 

 spread out on tables in storehouses till October, when 

 they are planted out. When lifted next June nothing of 

 the parent bulb remains but dry skins, on the edges of 

 which from 20 to 30 offsets are fastened. These bulb- 

 lets are picked off by hand and planted out in the fall, 

 just like large bulbs. This process of planting in fall 

 and taking up in summer for a two months' rest is re- 

 peated for four or five years, till the bulbs have attained 

 to marketable size. Another method of propagating is 

 to hollow out the bottom of the bulb smoothly to a point 

 in the center. More offsets are obtained in this way, 

 but they are smaller and take a year or two longer to 

 reach maturity. 



New varieties are obtained from seed, but such a de- 

 gree of perfection in form and color has already been 

 obtained that it is seldom a seedling is produced that 

 proves superior to existing varieties of the same color. 

 Some new varieties are obtained by encouraging any 

 tendency to change of color or form which may be 

 shown by the standard sorts. In this way the single 

 blue Charles Dickens has been changed to single red 

 and to double blue, and again, very recently, to double 

 red, till we have four varieties named Cnarles Dickens. 

 Last year's catalogue of a reliable Dutch grower con- 

 tains 340 named Hyacinths, j. M. THORBURN & Co. 



HYBRIDS are the products of crossing between spe- 

 cies. Of late, the word Hybrid has been used by some 

 writers to comprise all crosses, whether between species 

 or varieties. The justification of this usage is the fact 

 that there are no hard and fast lines between varieties 

 and species, and therefore that hybridism in the old 

 sense is incapable of exact delimitation. The opponents 

 to this usage, however, contend that so long as it is cus- 

 tomary to speak of species and varieties as different 

 classificatory categories, it is equally allowable and use- 

 ful to speak of Hybrids as between species and of crtfss- 

 breeds as between varieties ; moreover, historical cus- 

 tom favors this usage. Common -language terms rarely 

 if ever express absolute or ideal truth: they grow up by 

 custom. Whenever new ideas and discoveries render 

 them inexact, it may be quite as well to invent new 

 terms as to give new and technical meanings to old 

 terms which are thoroughly established in litera- 

 ture. The word Hybrid has always been a specific 

 term, and it were a pity now to make it a generic one, 

 particularly since there is a well established generic 

 term. The generic word, both substantive and verb, is 

 cross. Specific kinds of crosses are Hybrids, between 

 species; cross-breeds, between plants of the same spe- 

 cies ; half-hybrid, between a species and a variety of 

 another species ; bigener, between plants of different 



