322 BCLBODS-EOOTED FLOWERS. 



To grow the Gladiolus in perfection, it is necessary to avoid 

 aU soils that are cold and wet, and that is uniformly the character 

 of those that are badly draiaed. Care should also be taken in 

 the use of manures, avoiding all that are fresh, partially ferinented, 

 or undecomposed ; these tend to produce disease in the bulbs. 

 The best manure for them is that which was also recommended 

 for Hyaciaths ; old cow-dung, thoroughly rotted, or composted 

 with rotten sods and ground bone. K the soil be a clayey loam, 

 it will be of advantage to turn it up in the faU and leave it rough, 

 that it may be weU exposed to the action of the frost. After 

 the weather has become settled iu May, the ground should be 

 dug over and the manure thoroughly mingled with the soil, and 

 the bulbs planted out about ten inches apart each way, and five 

 inches deep. 



This is the whole secret of Gladiolus-raisiug save one, and 

 that is this : our own amateurs might, with a little attention to 

 selection and hybridization, raise much better new varieties from 

 seed than are now raised for them in Europe, and which, when 

 first sent out, cost from two to five dollars each bulb. So much 

 hetter is our climate for the perfect development of the Gladiolus, 

 that the seedlings which have been grown in America are much 

 finer as a whole than any that can be imported. If the seed be 

 gathered as soon as it is ripe, and sown the next spring in a frame 

 or iu pots, the young plants wiU grow finely, and wiU show bloom 

 the third year. From these the finest may be selected, and the 

 work of raising new and beautiful varieties be continued. 



The varieties once obtained are increased by multiplication 

 -of the bulbs. After the bulb has become large enough to flower 

 it will begin to multiply, and if the Uttle tiny bulbs at the base 

 of the old bulb are saved and kept out of ground for one season 

 and then sown, they wiU all grow, increase in size, and the second 

 year produce flowers. 



The flowers are produced on tall spikes and are of a great 

 variety of colors. They appear in the end of July and continue 

 during August, and until early frosts. We name a few of the 



