56 Improved Culture of HyachitJis in Water. 



other afford a supply as soon as the state of the soil shows that water is 

 necessary : at the same time, the soil should never be allowed to become so 

 dry as to affect the foliage. When the buds are formed, the pots should be 

 gradually withdrawn from the hotbed, partly to prevent the roots striking 

 into the fermenting materials, and partly to avoid a check when the bloom 

 is nearer expansion. They may after this be set on a hard bottom, as flags, 

 boards, or slates, and have liquid manure once or twice a -week, but not 

 strong. It may consist of one pound of guano dissolved in twenty gallons 

 of soft water. 



When the blooms are about half expanded, or hardly so much, the plants 

 should be removed to a cooler house, from 45° to 50° by night. I have 

 never observed any check result from doing this, and the color of the 

 flowers is rendered deeper and brighter, and their perfume more powerful, 

 whilst the blooming period is likewise prolonged. When the buds are far 

 advanced towards expansion, syringing should be discontinued, and the 

 paths sprinkled instead ; also afford the plants ample room, abundance of 

 air when the weather permits, and all the light possible. After blooming, 

 they should be gradually hardened off, and not placed out of doors until 

 danger from frost is past. 



To keep up a succession of bloom, a number of plants should be pruned 

 a month later than the first lot, say the first in the first week in October, the 

 second in November, and the third in December, introducing them into 

 the forcing-house in November, December, and January respectively, and 

 onwards up to March. 



The most suitable classes for early forcing are the Provence, the hybrid 

 perpetuals, and the teas. 



G. Abbey, in English '■'■ Journal of Horticulture^'' 



IMPROVED CULTURE OF HYACINTHS IN WATER. 



Probably the greater number of our readers have upon their mantle- 

 pieces, or in their windows, some of the pretty plain or ornamental glasses 

 in which hyacinths are flowered in water. 



During the chilly days of winter, these plants, by their fresh verdure, re- 

 mind us of the summer that has gone, and also foretell the promise of the 

 coming spring. 



