BULBOUS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 65 



The tender Tuberous roots, such as Dahlias, and the 

 like, will have to be taken up before the cold becomes se- 

 vere. As the Dahlia exhibits its flowers in all their splen- 

 dour until nipped by the frost, the roots ought, in the event 

 of a very sudden attack, to be secured from its blighting 

 e ffects. They are not apt to keep well, if taken up 

 before they are ripened ; the tops should therefore, be cut 

 down as soon as they have done flowering, and the ground 

 covered around the roots, with dung or litter ; this will 

 enable them to ripen without being injured by frost; and in 

 about a week after being cut down, or on appearance of 

 severe weather, they should be dug up and packed in dry 

 sand, and then stowed away in a dry place out of the reach 

 of frost. The temperature suited to keep greenhouse plants 

 will preserve them in good order. Some people complain 

 of the difficulty of keeping Dahlia roots through theWinter. 

 I am of opinion that they are often killed from being taken 

 up before they are ripe, and then put in a confined damp 

 place ; or are by some, perhaps, subjected to the other ex- 

 treme, and dried to a husk. I keep mine on shelves in the 

 greenhouse, and seldom lose one in a hundred. If it be an 

 object with the cultivator to have the names perpetuated from 

 year to year, each plant should have a small label affixed to 

 the old stalk, by means of small brass or copper wire, as 

 twine is very apt to get rotten. 



Cape Bulbs, and such tuberous roots as are cultivated in 

 pots, on account of their tenderness, should be kept dry 

 after the foliage is decayed, until within about a month of 

 their period of regerminating, at which time they should, after 

 having been deprived of their surplus offsets, be repotted in 

 good fresh earth. 



There are some descriptions of bulbous and tuberous 

 roots that need not be taken up oftener than once in two or 

 three years, and then only to deprive them of the young 

 offsets, and to manure the ground. These will be described 

 hereafter under their different heads. 



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