158 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



prince of gardeners, Herr Max Leichtlin, of Baden- 

 Baden, which is best known by the name, of 

 American origin, of G. Childsi. Thousands of 

 varieties of these distinct types have been raised 

 from seed carefully fertilised. Some are of mode- 

 rate price, others would tax a long purse; but 

 gladioli are not very hard to grow. They prefer 

 a stiffish soil, such a staple as best suits roses 

 and strawberries; and the corms, the term used 

 for solid bulbs, increase fast by offsets, which are 

 freely produced, so that no one need despair, with 

 a little patience, of working up a good stock from 

 a modest beginning. 



I can remember well, when the early white 

 variety of G. Colvillei " Bride " was still almost 

 a novelty, buying a potful from a famous old 

 nurseryman of his day, Wheeler of Warminster, 

 which multiplied without any trouble in the open 

 ground, by annual division, to many hundreds in 

 the course of a few years. In dry soils the early 

 gladioli succeed perfectly if thus left in the ground, 

 but the autumn-flowering varieties do better when 

 lifted as soon as the foliage turns yellow and stored 

 away in a dry, w T arm place through the winter. 

 The old G. brenchleyensis, however, seems sturdy 

 enough, generally, to take care of itself. 



There are two or three late summer and autumn- 

 flowering bulbs which should not be overlooked. 

 The drooping white bells of the Cape hyacinth 

 (Galtonia candicans), on stems from two to three 

 feet high, are very pretty when planted in good- 

 sized groups, and it is one of the few bulbs which 

 can be easily and quickly raised from seed flower- 



