62 THE NURSERY-MANUAL 



following season. This renewal is well shown in the gladiolus, 

 Fig. 49. The illustration shows a gladiolus bottom, half size, 

 when taken up in November. At the base are seen the withered 

 remains of the corm that was planted in the spring, and above 

 it the new corm, which will furnish bloom the following season. 



A number of cormels or "spawn" has also appeared about 

 the base of the new corm in Fig. 49. These may be planted 

 out in a border or bed, and will produce mature corms in one or 

 two seasons. The larger ones, under good treatment, often 

 produce bulbs an inch in diameter the first season. Some 

 growers keep the cormels a year and a half before planting them 

 out (that is, until the second spring), as they are thought to 

 vegetate more evenly under such treatment ; in this case they 

 should be placed in sand to prevent too great drying out. 



Adventitious cormels may be produced by various methods 

 of wounding the mother corm, and this practice is often neces- 

 sary, as some species do not produce cormels freely. Each 

 bud on the top or side of the corm may be made to produce a 

 separate corm by cutting a deep ring around it, so as partly to 

 divide it. Or the corm may be directly cut into as many 

 separate pieces as there are buds or eyes, after the manner of 

 cutting potatoes, but these pieces are usually handled in flats 

 where temperature and moisture can be controlled. Almost 

 any injury to such vigorous corms as those of the gladiolus and 

 crocus will result in the production of cormels, if care is taken 

 that the corms do not become so cold and wet as to cause them 

 to rot. 



2. DIVISION 



The word division is commonly applied to that phase of 

 separation in which the parts are cut or broken into pieces, 

 in distinction to propagation by means of parts that naturally 

 separate at the close of the season; but no hard and fast line 

 can be drawn between the two operations. Whilst separation 



