Improved Culture of Hyacinths in Water. 59 



When the stalk is about three inches high, if it is well formed, expose 

 the plants to a great heat. 



If the le?ves grow faster than the stalk, cut off the bunch of roots about 

 an inch below the base of the bulb. This is the experience of Monsieur 

 Vavin, the evhibiter. Let us see if the experience of others confirms it. 



We have also to see if he is entitled to the credit of the discovery. In 

 horticulture, as in other sciences, little things are often important ; and we 

 can show that this little experiment reveals important points in vegetable 

 physiology. 



No modern work which we have consulted mentions cutting off the roots 

 of hyacinths, nor gives any new rules for their culture. 



The Dutch have, for ages, excelled in the cultivation of hyacinths, and 

 none can produce them more perfectly. Of the old works which treat of 

 the culture of the hyacinth, we may especially notice the following : — 



"The Florilegium " of Swertius, published at Arnheim in 1620, which 

 speaks of about forty varieties of hyacinths, but does not mention a 

 double one. 



The work of Pierre Voorhelm, seventy years later, describes the first 

 double variety, " Marie," with white flowers, which sold for one thousand 

 florins. "The New Treatise on the Culture of Flowers," by the gardener 

 Pierre Morin, was published in Paris in 1674. 



This little book contained, among many valuable articles, a chapter on hya- 

 cinths. They are classed as single and double, early and late, hyacinths 

 of Peru (probably Scilla Perimiand) ; and the varieties have strange names. 

 The culture prescribed differs little from that of other earlier French works, 

 and the plants do not attain the perfection indicated in the writings of 

 Dutch authors. 



The " Treatise on Flowering Bulbs," of Nicolas van Kampen and Son, 

 — published in 1760 in Haarlem, and now very rare, — contains chapters 

 devoted to the choice and composition of soil for hyacinths, and upon the 

 points to be required for a perfect flower. It does not, however, mention 

 culture in water. 



A "Treatise on the Culture of Different Flowers" — Saugrain, Paris; 

 published anonymously — gives a more elaborate treatise on history and 

 culture than any former writer ; and seems to have given the idea of the 

 famous work of St. Simon on the hyacinth ( " La Jacinthe " ), which 



