144 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



Botany. Seasons are variable, and colours of flowers are much 

 affected by changes of weather. 1767 was a very disastrous 

 season by reason of the cold north wind which prevailed 

 in the early part of the year. Red hyacinths were infinitely 

 poorer than the preceding year, which was a particularly 

 favourable one to bulb growers. 



One must make allowances for seasons and accidents, and 

 one ought not to expect the bulbs sent off annually by the 

 growers to be always equally good, for in some years they 

 are more successful than in others — also the same bulb 

 which flowers splendidly, as a rule, may take it into its head 

 to yield a very poor flower, though it may be planted in the 

 same soil — between two others which are doing their best ; 

 one can see no cause why they should be so uncertain, 

 except perhaps they pump in sap more vigorously at one 

 time than another. It can be accounted for sometimes by 

 the fact that the bulb itself is feeling disposed to throw- 

 out young bulbs, and the sap is being drawn away from the 

 flower-stalk — or it may have suffered from a cold draught, 

 when it was lying on the shelf in the winter — or it may be 

 it is feeling the damp. 



Chapter V. — Organs of Reproduction 



The various species of hyacinths, though apparently 

 different and distinct, are essentially alike. Bulbs of one 

 sort differ very little from those of another — the leaves are 

 always alike, their stalks grow in the same way — their 

 blossoms, though infinitely varied, are arranged in the same 

 regular order — each connected with the stem by a little 

 thread, called the pedicel. 1 The double scarcely differs from 



1 The calyx or flower-cup, being coloured or petaloid in its nature, 



is now called the corolla, but the old-fashioned word is here used the 



pedicel is the little stalk which attaches) the flower to the stem (or 

 peduncle). 



