HERBS, TUBERS AKD BULBS. 323 



plying choice varietiee, taking the roots of large and rather mature 

 plants for this purpose. Cuttings of either the shoots or roots may be 

 made at any or all seasons, if giyen the protection of a house or of an 

 ordinary garden frame covered with glazed sash. Of the genus OxcUis, 

 there are are a large number of species, some natives of cold climates 

 and, of course, quite hardy, as with our common Wood Sorrel ( 0. Acc- 

 ioseUa) ; others are tender and cultivated in greenhouses. There are 

 several bulbous or tuberous-rooted species ; and at least two, found in 

 South America, are cultivated for their edible tubers. All are readily 

 propagated by seed, divisions of the roots and tubers. 



Gesnerificew (Gesneria Family). — A large family of tropical 

 herbs and shrubs, rarely trees ; often growing from scaly tubers. 

 Flowers with sowewhat megular corollas ; the corolla tube often 

 elongated or tube-shaped. Mostly very showy conservatory plants, re- 

 quiring a high temperature and a moist atmosphere during their season 

 of most rapid growth. The most familiar genera are : Achimenes, 

 Gesneria and Gloxinia. The seeds of aU these genera are very minute, 

 and should be sown on the surface of very light soU, then covered only 

 with a bell glass and water applied with an atomizer, or through a fine 

 rose on a watering pot or syringe. The seed requires a high tempera- 

 ture and a constant supply of moisture ; and the young plants need to 

 be handled with great care in transplanting, and kept shaded and moist 

 until well established. Vaaieties of Achimenes may be readily propa- 

 gated by means of the small corm produced at the base of theii- stems, 

 or by cuttings of any portion of their stems, planted in light soil or in 

 sand, then giving plenty of moisture overhead, and a high temperature. 

 The larger number of the species of Gesneria in cultivation are tuberous- 

 rooted and herbaceous, and they are propagated by dividing the tubers 

 and by cuttings of the stems, taken when somewhat mature or hard- 

 ened off after blooming. Qloxinias are low — almost, or quite stemless — 

 herbs, with very large soft leaves and showy flowers of many colors. 

 Seedlings bloom the first year, and varieties aie readily multiplied by 

 cuttings of the leaves, or from the young sprouts as they push from 

 the old tubers in spring. 



CtraminecB (Grass Family).— An immense order, and alarge number 

 of the genera of the greatest importance to man, not only yielding the 

 bread materials of tho world, but supplying the most valuable of our 

 domesticated animals with food. The cerealia, "Wheat, Kye, Oats, Rice, 

 Sorghum and Indian Com, are annual grasses, while the Tropical Sugar 

 Cane, the giant Bamboo of Asia, and many of the larger ornamental 

 species are perennials. The cultivation and propagation of aU the more 

 useful genera are so well known that they may be omitted here. It may 

 not, however, be generally known among cultivators that the Anmdo, 

 Sanibusa, Dendrocalamus, and other closely allied genera, may be almost 

 or quite as readily propagated by cuttings of the stems as the Saccharum 

 tfflcinaram, or Tropical Sugar Cane. This mode is preferable to the 



