44 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



Dogs Tooth Violets (Erythroniums) will be mentioned under 

 Rockery Flowers ; they are pretty and cheap bulbs, procurable in 

 autumn. 



Freesias are favourites with everybody, and their numbers look 

 like being increased by hybrids and cross-breds, for skilled men 

 are at work upon them, crossing the species and varieties. One 

 excellent hybrid, Chapmanii, has already been raised by a Sussex 

 florist, who crossed refracta alba with aurea, and then re-crossed 

 with the best of the offspring. In their early days of scarcity, 

 new Freesias, like all other new plants, will be relatively expensive ; 

 but the flower gardener who has to content himself with refracta 

 alba will suffer no hardship, for it is a beautiful flower and de- 

 liciously scented. Flowers can be got at midwinter by potting 

 bulbs in late summer. Lovers of the plant take care to get succes- 

 sions of it by potting bulbs at intervals. The soil recommended 

 for Hyacinths will do. Half-a-dozen bulbs may go into a medium- 

 sized pot. Some growers plunge the pots in fibre the same as in 

 the case of Hyacinths, but it is not necessary, and if it is done the 

 plants should be examined at short intervals, as they are apt to 

 push growth very quickly in a mild spell of weather, and if the 

 shoots run into the fibre they will be greatly weakened. After 

 the plants have flowered they may be gradually dried off, and when 

 at rest the bulbs may be taken from the soil and spread in a dry, 

 sunny spot for a few weeks ; this will ripen them thoroughly, and 

 insure them flowering well the following season. 



Galtonia, sometimes grown under the name of Hyacinthus 

 candicans, is a tall, white-flowered bulb, which can be bought for 

 about a penny (at a still lower rate in quantity), and is well worth 

 including. 



Gladioli will be referred to under Herbaceous Plants, and it 

 need only be said that they are among the most beautiful of the 

 plants of which bulb-dealers supply roots in a dry state in autumn, 

 winter, and spring. 



