1 52 On Hyacmths apparcntlij expanded in Water 



of hyacinths, scillas, ornithogalums, and narcissi are some- 

 times attacked by the rotz. 



A trial has been made of strewing saltpetre in the ground, so 

 as to prevent the rotz, but the result was very unsuccessful, and 

 the disease was found to be increased, instead of diminished. 



Art. XVI. On Hyacinths, the Flowers oftuhich appear expanded in 

 Water. By A. B. 



Of late years, it has been common in the London seed shops, 

 to observe hyacinth glasses with the plants inverted, the flower 

 appearing expanded in the water, where the roots usually are, 

 and the bulb and roots being contained in a small pot of soil, 

 turned upside down, and resting on the orifice of the glass. 

 This is not shown with much effect in water glasses of the ordi- 

 nary size, but when glasses are made twice or thrice the usual 

 size, the effect is more striking ; though it is merely the same 

 thing on a larger scale. Sometimes a glass appears with one 

 inverted plant, with its flowers fully expanded in water, and 

 another plant directly over it, growing erect, with its flowers 

 fully expanded in the open air ; the bulbs and roots of both 

 plants being in the same pot, or in two pots, placed bottom to 

 bottom. 



By what means are the blossoms made to expand in water ? 

 They are made to expand first in air, in one of two ways : first, 

 by the common mode of growing hyacinths in pots, and when 

 the flower is expanded, introducing it into the glass, and filling it 

 up with water ; and secondly, by inverting the pot over the top of 

 the glass, and tying it in that position after the bulb is planted, 

 so that the plant may grow into the glass, in which, of course, 

 there is no water, and after the blossom has expanded there, 

 introducing the water. A necessary precaution, according to 

 this last mode, is to keep the glass, and of course the bulb, and 

 the pot in which it grows, in a horizontal position, near the light, 

 and to turn them as often as the hyacinth appears to be growing 

 to one side. 



With respect to the mode of growing hyacinths in water 

 glasses, it is commonly thought to be necessary to change the 

 water whenever it appears to become muddy, but, though this is 

 frequently done in England, it is as frequently omitted in Hol- 

 land, and the Dutch florists (we refer to Mr. Corsten and Mr. 

 Lockhart, in London) say that they perceive no disadvantages 

 from the practice. 



London, February, 184 0. 



