42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1894. 



seeing anybody niakiug much haste at any time daring our visit, hut 

 none were idle, and the work people appeared happy. Most of them 

 live in cottages in the gardens, each with a neat garden adjoining. 



The magazines for storing marketable bulbs are situated by the sides 

 of the canals, and are usually erected alongside of each other and con- 

 nected by broad passage ways. One of the best arranged we visited 

 had light rails along the passages, on which hand trucks large enough 

 to hold about three barrels full could be driven easily by hand to any 

 part of the buildings. Thus as the boats arrived from the grounds the 

 baskets of cleaned bulbs were lifted from the boats on to the trucks, 

 which when loaded are pushed along the rails to the place where they 

 are to lie till packed for shipment. Sorted hyacinths are all kept in 

 one section, laid in regular rows, one deep on the shelves, which are 

 about seven inches apart. Tulips will be found in another section, 

 doable and single varieties being in different parts. Other leading 

 species of bulbs, such as narcissi, scillas, crocuses, etc., are in 

 their allotted section. All are carefully named and labelled ; the 

 varieties of the species being kept distinct by means of movable blocks 

 of wood. All other bulbs with dry roots are stored before shipment 

 in a similar manner. 



We shall now endeavor to describe somewhat minutely the manner 

 in which one or two of the leading species are propagated and culti- 

 vated. We select the hyacinth as being particularly interesting, and 

 also on account of its great value as a decorative plant at a season 

 when other flowers are not over plentiful. In Holland this flower is 

 grown entirely in sand as fine as meal, old decomposed cow manure in 

 liberal quantity being placed underneath or mixed with the soil before 

 the bulbs are set out. The peculiarities of the soil and climate of 

 Holland are more favorable to their production than any other section. 

 The original of the Dutch hyacinth, Hyacintlms orientalis, is a very 

 insignificant plant, bearing on a spike a few small, pale blue, single 

 flowers. From this small beginning, as cultivated more than 300 

 years ago, we have, to-day, over 500 varieties of nearly every color, 

 many of them charmingly beautiful and nearly all of easy cultivation. 

 We have a record of the existence of six single varieties in the year 

 1597. Towards the close of the seventeenth century double flowering 

 sorts began to appear, and for many years the double form was most 

 esteemed. In 1754 an English writer described upwards of 50 single 

 varieties and 90 double. At that date favorite sorts were sold at 

 extravagant prices. One white variety, La Reine des Femmes, sold 

 for 50 guilders a bulb on its flrst appearance. A double blue, Over- 



