CHAP. Y. ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 383 



vinces from the Sahartmpore Gardens ; thrives well in the 

 border, and produces pretty racemes of dark-blue flowers, of 

 about the size of black currants. I have never met with it in 

 Bengal. 



Hyacinthus. 



H. orientalis HYACINTH. By repeated trials it has been well 

 ascertained that the Hyacinth cannot be brought to thrive and 

 blossom, with any degree of satisfaction, in Calcutta or its 

 vicinity. Of the bulbs that are imported some only produce a 

 few leaves, while others, which appear forming for blossom, 

 seem scarcely able to push themselves above ground, and instead 

 of opening all the flowers in the cluster at once, open two or 

 three first, which decay before the remainder expand. 



In the North-West Provinces, however, their cultivation is 

 attended with complete success. A selection of bulbs I procured 

 from England, when at Ferozepore, with very little attention 

 given to them, blossomed as beautifully as they are ever seen 

 to do in Europe. 



The best bulbs are always of a conical form. All flat-crowned 

 ones are apt to give off numerous offsets, and rarely, if ever, 

 give good flowers. Also 



" Small bulbs are of the finest varieties. The size of the bulb has 

 nothing to do with the fineness of the bloom, which is most com- 

 monly inversely as the size of the bulb." * 



The pot in which a Hyacinth is grown should be eleven or 

 twelve inches deep, the soil a mixture of well-decayed cow- 

 manure and leaf-mould, and a very large proportion of sand, and 

 a few wood-ashes or small bits of charcoal. Some recommend the 

 bulb to be planted three inches deep, but this would be to bury 

 one of the principal features of beauty in the plant. The best 

 plan perhaps is to plant the bulb with about a third above the 

 surface of the earth, that the beautiful metallic colour upon it 

 may not be concealed, and then attend to the following directions 

 given by Sir J. Paxton : 



" The plant is unable to develop itself with a rapidity propor- 

 tionate to the moisture it imbibes, when its upper surface is acted 

 upon too immediately by the atmosphere. Hence the propriety of 

 covering the bulbs with some light material. They ought invari- 



* Vilmorin's Catalogue, quoted in Gard. Chron.,' Sept. 1861. 



