296 



GASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



tubers, root-stocks, &o. The differences between 

 bulbs and buds depend on the fact that while the 

 bud is usually one of many connected together by a 

 common branch or stem, the bulb itsell may, and 

 often does, constitute the entire plant, and for the 

 most part, though not exclusively, it is subterranean 

 in its mode of growth. 



From bur present point of view, however, the 

 great distinction lies in the different nature of the 

 scales. The bud-scales, as we have seen, serve to 

 protect the young growing point 

 within from undue cooling or ra- 

 diation, and from drying up by 

 loss of moisture from the interior ; 

 but they do not serve as store- 

 organs, and the growing point, as 

 it lengthens into a shoot, derives 

 little or none of its supplies of 

 water or food from the scales. 

 Their purpose fulfilled, they are 

 cast off and are of no further use, 

 unless it be to restore to the soil 

 some of the earthy ingredients 

 derived from it, and of which they 

 contain considerable quantities. In 

 the case of the bulb it is quite 

 different — ^whether the scales wrap 

 round the growing point, as in the 

 Onion or the Hyacinth, or whether 

 each individual scale only covers a 

 portion of the bulb, as in the Lily 

 (Fig. 26), just as a single tile or 

 slate covers its portion of the roof. 

 In both cases the scales are filled 

 with food accumulated in the past 

 season and intended for use in a 

 future one, after an interval of 

 rest. When a Hyacinth or other 

 bulb commences to grow, it uses the 

 food stored up in its own tissues, 

 and does not, for some time at least, 

 derive much, if any, nourishment (save perhaps 

 water) from the water or soil in which it is placed. 

 A due supply of water may be necessary to help in 

 the solution of the nutritive matter and insure its 

 easy transport to the points where it is most needed. 

 It is this necessity for an abundant supply of water 

 which leads gardeners to recommend the bulbs in- 

 tended to be grown in glasses to be put in a dark 

 place and in a warm cupboard before they are ex- 

 posed to the light. The object of this is to aid the 

 development of the roots, and by their means to 

 secure a supply of water to facilitate the subsequent 

 steady, uninterrupted growth of the leaves and of 

 the flower-stalk. 



So far as the flowers are concerned, their growth 



rig. 26.— The Bulb of thu Common 

 White Lily. 



depejids more upon the amount of food stored up in 

 the bulb the season jjrevious than it does upon any 

 supplies obtained this present season. 



The production of flowers is, however, not the 

 only work the bulb has to accomplish. New bulbs 

 have to be formed and fresh stores accumulated in 

 them, and to fulfil these ends aright, leaf-action 

 must be proportionately vigorous. This subject of 

 leaf-action will have to be treated of further on ; we 

 allude to the subject now incidentally to protest 

 against the barbarous practice of 

 some "jobbing" gardeners igno- 

 rant of their craft, and of amateurs 

 exercising no thought, of cutting 

 off the foliage from the bulbs, or 

 what comes to the same thing, from 

 the " corms " of their Crocuses. 

 Everj"- leaf should be left on so 

 long as it is capable of doing 

 efficient work. When its work is 

 coming to an end — ^when the sere 

 and yellow leaf appears — then is 

 the time to remove it. This is the 

 indication that the bulb is going to 

 rest, and that rest may effectuall}'' 

 be secured by "lifting," i.e., dig- 

 ging up the bulbs, drying them 

 off, and keeping them as the Dutch 

 bulb-growers do, in a dry place, 

 imder a uniform temperature, so 

 that nothing shall stimulate growth 

 till the desired time. It may be 

 objected that in nature the bulbs 

 are not dug up and treated in this 

 way, and that is of course true. 

 The same object is, however, at- 

 tained in a different waj'. For the 

 most part these bulbous plants are 

 natives of hot dry climates, where, 

 during the growing season, there 

 is abundant rain and genial 

 warmth. Exposed to these conditions, the bulb 

 grows, flowers, and makes provision for the future. 

 Then comes a hot dry season ; the leaves shrivel, the 

 surplus water evaporates, and the bulb goes to rest 

 tiU reawakened in the following season by the rain. 

 In colder climates the diminishing heat of autumn 

 insures the gradual going to rest of the bulbs ; frost 

 puts a stop to growth altogether, and the bulb re- 

 mains dormant till spring rains or melting snow afford 

 sufficient water, in combination with sufficiently in- 

 creased temperature, to start the bulb once more 

 into growth. 



There are other bulbs, however, in which the 

 course of events is different ; such, for instance, are 

 the evergreen bulbs, like those of Crinimi or 



