80 CULTIVATION'. 



the third year may be taken up, and afterwards 

 managed as offsets. 



Offsets are managed by being kept in nursery- 

 beds till they become of full size, which they 

 usually do in the third or fourth year. 



Hyacinths, whether raised from seeds or off- 

 sets, have an infancy, youth, and mature age. 

 The first is that from the time they are inde- 

 pendent beings till they flower ; the next stage is 

 from their first flowering till they arrive at their 

 utmost vigour and volume; and the last is that 

 natural size which they continue to assume so 

 long as they continue in health and free from 

 accident, and which (barring accidents) may be, 

 by the assistance of art, prolonged for ever. It 

 is true, that a full-grown bulb shews at last a 

 kind of decrepitude ; but this appears to be 

 caused by mismanagement, or want of change 

 of soil or situation, rather than to any natural 

 exhaustion of the vital principle. 



It is quite rational to conclude, however, that 

 the hyacinth, like all other vegetables, may fall 

 into a kind of old age, and at last become extinct. 



