30 



SEPARATION AND DIVISION. 



a little bulbel, or sometimes two or more, will appear at 

 the base of the scale, as shown in Fig. 24. Late autumn 

 or early winter is a proper time for this operation. These 

 pots or flats may be plunged outdoors during summer if the 

 planting was done in winter, or the scales may be potted 

 off or transferred to the open border as soon as rootlets 

 have formed. It is the common practice with most hardy 

 species to allow the scales to remain in the original flats 

 during summer and to cover them the next fall, allowing 

 them to remain outdoors over winter. The succeeding 

 spring they are shifted into a bed or border, and by the 



next fall— having had 

 two summers' growth 

 ^most species will be 

 ready for permanent 

 planting in the flower 

 border. 



A bulblet is a small 

 bulb borne entirely 

 above ground, usually 

 in the axil of a leaf or 

 in the inflorescence. 

 Familiar examples oc- 

 cur in the tiger lily and 

 in "top " onions. In 

 the former instance, 

 the bulblets are direct 

 transformations of 

 buds, while in the 

 onion they are trans- 

 formed flowers. It is 

 impossible to draw any sharp line of separation between 

 bulblets and buds. In some plants, certain buds detach 

 themselves and fall to the ground to multiply the species. 

 Sometimes these buds vegetate before they fall from the 

 plants, as in the case of various begonias and ferns. For 

 purposes of propagation, bulblets are treated in the same 



25. Gladiolus corm (xj^). 



