ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 75 



GLADIOLUS. 

 The Gladiolus belongs to the great family of lilaceous 

 plants. They have what is called solid bulbs — that is, the 

 scales are entire, surrounding the bulb, forming concentric 

 rings without the natural cross sections as seen in the im- 

 bricated bulb. The Gladiolus is a perennial plant, and yet 

 the mature bulbs are, strictly speaking, only annual. A 

 bulb planted in spring produces one or more flower stems, 

 at the base of which and above the old one a new bulb is 

 formed ; the old one decays as the new one is produced. 

 At the base of the new bulb small bulbs are formed ; in 

 some varieties they are very abundant, in others very few. 



Fig. 



Fig. 9 shows a mature bulb with the stem cut away; the 

 small bulbs are shown attached to the base, as they appeal 

 when the plants are taken up in autumn. The small 

 bulbs (or bulblets, as they are sometimes called, to distin- 

 guish them from the larger ones) may be planted, and in 



