CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
Placing these plants out of doors retards or destroys the bloom, unless properly shaded, 
as the strong sun sears and turns the leaves yellow, from which they never recover; even 
in the house a thin shade is of service at midday if near the glass. We think, except in 
tropical climates, that they should not go out at all, as they can be given all the necessary 
air from open windows. 
A VACINT FH. 
YACINTHS are among the first plants to make their appearance 
out of doors in spring, and gladden the earth with their bright 
bloom. In preparing a bed or box for the bulbs, special care should 
be exercised, as their fleshy substance renders them an easy prey to 
disease, and subjects them to the attacks of rats, mice and other enemies. 
The best soil for them is a very sandy loam well mixed with good leaf- 
mold and old cow-manure. They should be set in rows, a few inches 
apart each way, and then covered three or four inches deep with the soil. A 
handful of sand placed under each bulb will help to prevent decay. The sea- 
son of planting is from the middle of October to the same time in November. 
After they have ceased to bloom, and their leaves have decayed or died down 
to the surface, the bulbs should be taken up and placed in some shady spot to 
dry, when they should be stored away in an airy situation until again required for plant- 
ing. These plants are also adapted to pot culture, and can be grown singly, or two or 
three of different colors, in a crock five or six inches wide. <A piece of broken crockery 
or the like is placed over the hole for drainage; a little old cow-manure is laid thereon, 
and then the pot is filled, within an inch of the top, with the soil above indicated as best 
for Hyacinths. Finally the bulb is placed in the soil, with about one-half uncovered. 
The usual treatment for bulbous plants, as already given under Crocus, is then followed. 
Hyacinths can be grown in.sand, and also in water. In sand they are placed in uw proper 
receptacle and set away as above, the sand being kept merely moist. When the rootlets 
have got a good start, the leaves will begin to appear, showing that it is time to bring 
them forward to the light. In regular Hyacinth glasses there is generally a rim or shal- 
low cup for the bulb to rest in. The glass is then filled with rainwater so as almost to 
touch the base of the bulb, The water should be kept pure by inserting a piece of char- 
coal and by being changed weekly. The glasses should be put away for about a month 
in some cool dark place, when they will have rooted sufficiently to be brought forward 
into the light to finish growth. The single-Alowered varieties are the best for glass cul- 
ture. Hyacinths that have flowered in pots or glasses are afterward fit only for planting 
in beds or borders. The Hollanders make a specialty of raising Hyacinth bulbs, and have 
produced and named two thousand distinct varieties, which they supply in immense quan- 
tities to the markets of the world. It may be imagined how gorgeous an appearance is 
often presented in the Netherlands by a twenty-acre lot, or more, wholly planted in Hya- 
f cinths; and the fragrance is said to have been noticed fifty miles at sea. 
37° a 
RAD 
vf, 
