Hothouse Bulbs. 31 



the ground, and are apt to have worms and slugs gathered 

 with them. We have even had small red worms come out of 

 cabbages and lettuce, besides green fly, and caterpillars. After 

 the vegetables remain three or four minutes in the salt water 

 cistern, whatever has been in them comes out, and is seen 

 writhing and dying in the water just as worms come out 

 of the ground and die on the surface after a watering with lime 

 water. The vegetables are then taken out and washed with 

 fine fresh water in the usual way. 



I think this is a thing that will be considered worth knowing 

 by the readers of the Gardener's Magazine, as salt is now so 

 cheap, it will cost very little, as the same water will last for 

 weeks, the worms, &c. being strained'out of it. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



James Simson. 

 Musscltmrgh, Nov. 20th, 1825. 



Art. VIII. On the Cultivation of Hothouse bulbous-rooted 

 Plants. By Mr. Robert Sweet, F.L.S. Author of the 

 Botanical Cultivator, Cistineae, and other works. 



Of all the genera of hothouse bulbs, that are cultivated in 

 our gardens, none can vie with the beautiful genus Amaryllis, 

 of which there are now numerous species, and also a great 

 number of hybrid or mule productions in our collections, 

 some or other of which are producing their splendid flowers 

 all the year through. The mule plants are in general more 

 hardy, and flower more readily than the original species, which 

 makes them very desirable. In the nursery of Mr. Colvill, 

 a great quantity of hybrid productions have been raised from 

 seeds, and several hundreds of them were in flower all through 

 last winter and spring, which was occasioned by the follow- 

 ing method : — they had been grown in frames and pits all 

 the summer ; and in autumn, when it became time to remove 

 them to the hothouse, they were taken out of the pots, and 

 the mould was all shook clean from their roots ; they were 

 then laid on shelves in the house, and as the leaves and roots 

 began to decay, they were cleared away, that they might not 

 injure the bulbs. As soon as the bulbs became dry and hard, 

 some of them began to show flower, and others continued to 

 do so all the winter and spring, seldom being less than a 

 hundred, sometimes two or three hundred in flower together, 

 when scarcely any other plant was in bloom. As soon as they 

 show for bloom they should be potted, and the sooner the 

 better, as they draw up weak, and do not flower so well, if 



