166 BULBS AXD TUBEROUS-HOOTED PLANTS. 



While they succeed finely in broad sunlight, the warm 

 sun of June, when they are in flower, quickly destroys 

 the delicate flowers. To guard against this, they should 

 be slightly protected on the south and west. If they 

 can be planted in moist ground, near the edge of a 

 stream, perfection will be reached. If planted in good 

 soil, they should be divided as often as once in three 

 years, as they do not bloom as well when the roots be- 

 come massed, possibly because they cannot get suffi- 

 cient nourishment when in large clumps. A portion 

 only, should be divided each year, as it takes one year 

 to make strong crowns for the next year's flowers. This 

 species is also grown readily from seed, which should be 

 sown in early spring, in drills, as we sow peas ; trans- 

 plant the following spring into rows three feet apart, 

 the plants one foot apart in the rows. With good culti- 

 vation, nearly every plant will flower the second year. 

 A large mass of these seedlings, no two of which will be 

 precisely alike, but all good, has no superior in the floral 

 world. After the first flowers appear, such as are the 

 least desirable can be thrown out, giving the remainder 

 a better chance to grow, which they will do so rapidly 

 as to form a perfect mass in two years thereafter. 



ISMENE. 



See Peruvian Daffodil (Hymenocallis Amancaes), 

 Page 157. 



IXIA. 



This interesting genus of Cape bulbs now includes 

 about thirty species, and very many garden varieties, the 

 result of cross-fertilization, a work that, in this case, has 

 been unusually successful, as the size of the flowers has 

 been materially increased without loss of vigor in the 

 plant, or in the wonderful colors and markings of the 

 flowers. Since the introduction of this genus, some 

 twelve others have been formed out of it ; in doing this 



