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TUBEROSE 569 
Ix1oLrRION =. KOLPAKOWSKIANUM = (Kolpakowski’s). 
Flowers blue or white, somewhat trumpet-shaped ; summer. 
Height, 1 foot. Introduced from Lake Sairan, 1878. 
J. MONTANUM (mountain). Flowers violet-blue, segments spreading 
irregularly; June. Height, 12 to 20 inches. Introduced from Syria, 
1844. Plate 264. There are two or three varieties in cultivation, 
differing but slightly from the type. : 
Ixiolirions should be grown in good, light, well- 
drained soil, on a warm, sunny border. It is advisable in 
this climate to take up the bulbs in autumn and store them in dry sand 
in a cool, but frost-proof, place, and to give them the protection of a 
handlight after planting them in spring. Owing to the weakness and 
slenderness of the flowering-stems, these should be tied up to a stick as 
they grow, or the wind, or the weight of the flowers, will bring them to 
the ground. 
Description of Ixiolirion montanum; leaves, stem, and flowers, 
te 264. natural size. Fig. 1, section of a flower. 
Species. 
Cultivation. 
TUBEROSE 
Natural Order AMARYLLIDEH. Genus Polianthes 
PoLIANTHES (Greek, polios, white or bright, and anthos, a flower). A 
single-species genus, consisting of the well-known Tuberose, Polianthes 
tuberosa, which has an erect tuberous rootstock, from which arises a tall, 
roundish stem, 3 or 4 feet high, sparsely provided with long, slender, 
lance-shaped leaves. The upper part of the stem is rather zigzag, and 
bears numerous very fragrant creamy white flowers, borne in pairs from 
the axils of membranous bracts. These flowers have a very short 
footstalk, the perianth funnel-shaped, with a long, slender, curved tube, 
and ‘six incurved, nearly equal, divisions. The six stamens are inserted 
in the tube. The Tuberose is a native of Mexico, but has been widely 
cultivated in the East for centuries; it was introduced to English 
gardens about the year 1629. There are several varieties: “ African,” 
“ American,” “Italian,” ete. The best is “The Pearl,” which is of dwarf 
habit, with pure white flowers. 
It is the prevailing custom to grow Tuberoses only 
from newly imported bulbs; these are so greatly im- 
poverished by the abundant flowers that they have little chance of 
recuperating i in this country sufficiently to make them worth growing a 
IV.—19 
Cultivation. 
