12 BULLETTN" 1082, TJ. S. DEPAKTMEl^TT OF AGRICtTLTURE. 



the bulbs is measured by size rather than by age. However, if bulb- 

 lets below 5 centimeters in circumference be planted, it can be said 

 with confidence that with most garden tulips some of these will 

 blossom the second and the remainder the third year. 



BLINDNESS. 



A blind tulip is one which has reached flowering size and may or 

 may not produce a stem, but does not flower. It may or may not 

 have flowered the previous season. The causes of blindness in com- 

 mercial bulbs are varied. It may be due to slight heating in the pack 

 in transit, to too high a temperature at the time the plants are root- 

 ing,^ or to improper temperature or moisture conditions at the time 

 the bud is coming to view, to escaping gas, or in some sections to 

 heavy infestations of plant lice. 



It not infrequently happens that sufl&cient heating occurs in transit 

 to kill the flower while the bulb is little if at all injured for growth. 

 The only way to detect this defect is to cut a bulb open. A dead 

 flower can easily be recognized. No case is known to the writer 

 where bulbs of proper size and firmness have been grown with no 

 flowers in them. The blindness has invariably been brought about 

 by treatment after digging. When blindness occurs in bedding tuhps 

 the defect is most commonly traceable to heating somewhere in 

 storage. When it occurs in forced stocks the trouble may be the 

 same or it may be due to improper handling. It may be accepted as 

 axiomatic that a tulip bulb of proper size and ordinary firmness has a 

 flower in it and if properly handled will produce that flower. 



RELATION OF SIZE OF BULB TO SIZE OF FLOWER. 



In general the size of the flower in any variety is proportional to 

 the size of the bulb. It takes a certain size of bulb to produce a 

 flower, and the larger and more perfect the bulb the larger and better 

 the flower. It is under conditions of starvation and crowding that 

 flowers as well as bulbs beconie small, and some varieties will reduce 

 the size of their flowers beyond anything to be thought of in other 

 varieties. Lack of proper fertility over a period of years wfll often 

 cause excessive splitting of bulbs. Poor fertility and neglect will also 

 give much smaller flowers than will be found under conditions of 

 careful cultivation, although all the progeny may be planted, from 

 a 3-centimeter bulblet up. 



Flowers of Artus under poor fertility may be not over three-fourths 

 of an inch in diameter when fully opened, but in well-grown stocks 

 the smallest flowers are never so small. 



3 This applies to blindness under forcing conditions and also may apply to bedded tulips in the ex- 

 treme South. 



