DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 229 
of the spike to proceed in growing, to draw up the juices 
from the earth, but remove their seed vessels as they ap- 
pear, in order to throw the whole streagth of the plant 
into the hybridized seed; observing that the first and 
second flowers of a spike, if perfect, are more likely to 
succeed in this operation than those of later bloom. 
It is probable that many varieties of the same flower, 
now considered a species, have been thus produced natur- 
ally ; certainly very many beautiful additions to the flow- 
er-garden have been thus artificially brought into being. 
It may be readily imagined how amusing this employment 
is to the man of leisure, and to the gardener it has been 
for some years a source of large profits.” 
The Gladiolus is propagated by seed, or by offsets of 
the bulbs. Large ones may be taken out of the earth and 
kept in a dry place, but seedlings and small offsets should 
be left in the pots of earth if possible, they being more 
apt to dry up if removed; they must, however, be kept 
out of the reach of frost. 
The seed should be sown, as soon as ripened, in boxes or 
pots, and placed in the green-house in a peaty soil, or it 
may be sown in March or April, in a hot-bed, with mod- 
erate heat; the seeds should be scarcely covered. When 
the plants appear, and the rays of the sun are strong in 
May, they should be shaded with mats. When the grass 
of the plants is two inches high, they may be repotted 
and plunged in the ground in June, so that the first year 
they may make the greatest possible growth, "When the 
grass begins to grow yellow in autumn, the pots should be 
taken up and put in a dry warm place, and the earth re- 
main upon the roots dry, during the winter; they may 
be planted out in the ground oa May, after taking them 
from the pots. The third year the greater part of them 
will show flowers. 
I had prepared a descriptive list of about one hundred 
