132 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



not feel particularly uneasy if the frost touches the tip of 

 the shoot, but they are very much afraid of (the frost) its 

 reaching the flower-buds within the shoot, for if their tops 

 are nipped by the frost, the hyacinths will be disfigured. If 

 any one or two of the leaf sheaths get yellow or diseased 

 they can be cut away without injuring the bud, and neither 

 will the bulb itself suffer, as in any case the leaves drop off 

 in the end of the year. 



It is evident now that Nature works in the bulb from the 

 interior to the exterior, and this principle must be well borne 

 in mind by the cultivator. 



Chapter III.— Young Bulbs 



Having thoroughly examined roots, leaves, and tunics, 

 we now come to the organs of reproduction, and as the young 

 bulbs form them themselves very oddly and irregularly at 

 the base of the old bulb, it is very difficult even for a 

 connoisseur to judge whether any little bulbs are coming, 

 and still less can he foretell how many he may hope for. 

 Sometimes they are numerous, and on single hyacinths 

 twenty-four have been known to develop on one bulb, but 

 on single hyacinths they develop very irregularly, while on 

 the double they are more regular in their growth ; growing 

 from the centre ; though, as the central stem with all its 

 leaves grows, the new little bulbs are pushed more and 

 more to the sides — sometimes they push through to the 

 outside of the bulb, sometimes between the tunics, wherever 

 they can get air. 



Each baby bulb contains the same number of (fans) leaves 

 as the parent shoot, and develops in the same way — only that 

 the first flower of the new bulb is very thin and small. The 

 tunics partake of the same bulbous substance which forms 

 the base of the bulb until it grows to the height (or point) 



