348 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



America. The bulb, or rather corm,* increases very rapidly, 

 and by a little attention one may obtain from a few, a very 

 large supply. They may be planted with good effect in 

 rows, in clumps, and in beds, but not singly. A sandy 

 loam, well mixed with leaf-mold, is their delight. We 

 usually remove the top soil, and then take out and reject 

 about twelve inches of the subsoil, making in all about 

 twenty inches' dej^th ; return the top earth, together with 

 enough compost of leaf-mold, sand, and thoroughly 

 decayed manure, to fill it ; plant about four inches deep, 

 measuring from the top of the corm. When your plants 

 are growing, examine every day ; if you see a sawdust-like 

 matter about them, they need attention. On searching, a 

 perforation will be found in the stem. With a penknife slit 

 the stem down from the hole until you reach the worm 

 which caused the mischief. If this course is not properly pur- 

 sued, you will lose stem and root. With a thin strip of bass 

 matting, or a bit of green ribbon, the stem may be tied and 

 fastened to a rod for support. In door-yards, and in the 

 scanty grounds of city yards, clumps of ten or fifteen gladioli 

 would have a very beautiful appearance, especially if dif- 

 ferent varieties, instead of being mixed, should be planted 

 in separate but contiguous patches. 



Tuberose, — ^The beauty of its pure, white florets, but 

 especially the delightful odor of this fragrant flower, has 

 rendered it a favorite wherever it is known. It is very 



* Bulbs are of two kinds : those which have a number of coats, or 

 skins, one within the other, hke the hyacinth, which are called tunicated 

 bulbs ; those which consist of a number of scales, only attached to the 

 base, like the lily ; but what are called corms, are only a solid mass of 

 feculent matter, and which modern botanists do not allow to be bulbs, 

 but call underground stems. Corms do not require taking up so often 

 as bulbs ; and when they are intended to remain for several years in the 

 ground, they should be planted from four to six inches deep at first ; as 

 every year a new corm will form above the old one ; and thus, if planted 

 too near the surface, the corm, in a few years, will be pushed out of the 

 ground. — Laicdon. 



