H CULTIVATION AND ANALISIS OF PLANTS. fc J 



disappear the place may be sown with annuals. For the house they may be planted in 

 pans of sand or in any of the pretty designs manufactured for them out of terra cotta or 

 pottery ware, and set away until they show growth. They can be put in the ground any- 

 where, with their accompanying pots, but should be covered up with ashes to protect 

 them from rats and mice, as well as from the frost; or they may be stored indoors in a 

 dark cellar or closet, being protected in the same way. About midwinter they can be 

 removed at intervals, to insure a succession of flowering, into the house or conservatory, 

 where they are intended to bloom. They must always be kept at low temperature until 

 near the blooming period, for too great heat lengthens and weakens the stem. They also 

 bloom in water, in small glasses adapted to them, made on the same principle as Hyacinth 

 glasses. Bulbs should be set in the fall. They can be raised from seeds, blooming in 

 three years, that being the average for most kinds of bulbs. All Crocus bulbs should be 

 set about the last of October, or early in November. 



rf-^iife. ERHAPS there are but few plants for fall, winter and spring culti- 

 vation that will afford more pleasure to the industrious and watchful 

 amateur than this attractive little plant. It never grows more than 

 six or eight inches high, but it has beautiful mottled leaves, and the 

 Bowers, which are borne on single stems, have a velvety center 

 encircled by rays of a purplish red; and in some varieties lilac and 

 white, while in a few they approach a maroon. These ray-like petals turn 

 down, as in the Dodecatheon Meadia or Shooting Star, sometimes called the 

 Prairie Pointer. The bulbs should be obtained as early as possible in the 

 autumn, so that they can be planted at intervals to promote an orderly succession 

 periods of blooming; or, they may be planted all at once, but treated 

 with diflcrent degrees of heat, water, and other attentions, to hasten or retard their 

 development. The plumper ones should be preferred; but if shriveled ones only can be 

 had, they may be freshened by being enveloped in damp moss or cotton batting for one 

 or more days. They delight in a good, rich soil, in which they are planted so as to 

 leave about one-fourth of an inch of their substance above the surface. The soil should 

 receive a little water, and the pot be put away in a sheltered place with a northern aspect, 

 or under a tree, until they begin to grow, giving a little moisture as required. When the 

 leaves begin to start, the plants can be brought forward to the light and given all the air 

 possible every day, with water when necessary, care being taken that they do not decay 

 through being too abundantly supplied. After their blooming season is over, the watering 

 should be gradually reduced as the foliage withers, and finally almost discontinued. They 

 are then put away in a shady, airy situation, free from rain, yet where the soil will not at 

 any time become actually dry; but if there is any danger of such a contingency, a little 

 water around the bulb might be given, as it must on no account be allowed to decline from 

 its plump condition. In the fall they should have the soil shaken from them, and be placed 



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