64 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



of water. We all know that in a hyacinth glass 

 a fine plant and a noble flower may be produced 

 from the bulb with nothing but water given. We 

 also know from this glass culture that the roots of 

 hyacinths do go down some depth, considerably 

 more than the height of the glass. And it should 

 further be stated that the sand in the soil spoken of 

 rests upon a water-bearing stratum of clayey peat, 

 in fact the general water-level of the whole country. 

 But it seems almost impossible that hyacinth roots 

 should reach down vertically for four feet or more, 

 and quite impossible that they should start and form 

 such a length of root without the aid of water. If, 

 however, the water was always slightly rising up 

 through the sand, and moreover the roots had 

 a power of attraction almost equivalent to suction, 

 the impossibility would vanish. And so it is. Water, 

 or rather moisture, does rise through the soil by 

 capillary attraction, as it will up through a sponge 

 or piece of flannel. Just so, moisture is always more 

 or less rising up through the earth, though of course 

 a quantity in time of rain or immediately after sinks 

 down through it. It rises most of all when the sun 

 shines hot and the surface is dry, and then the Eose, 

 which likes heat and a friable air-permeated surface 

 above and a "cool bottom" below, rejoices in the 

 rich moisture which the roots appropriate as it rises 

 up through the manure from below. 



In thus recommending the placing of all manure 

 at planting time beneath the horizontally lying roots, 

 and incorporating none in the soil at their own 

 level, I must make the proviso that the soil at that 

 level is, as it generally would be, sufficiently rich in 

 "humus." This is decayed organic matter, animal 



