CHAPTER XYL 



Bulbs for Summer Flowering. 



" ' Look at the Lilies, how they grow! ' 

 ■ Twas thna the Saviour said, that we, 

 E'en in the simplest flowers that blow, 

 God's ever watchful care might see. 



Shall He who paints the Lily's leaf, 



Who gives the 9ose its scented breath, 

 Love all His works, except the chief, 



And leave His image, man, to death ? " 



The Japan Lilies. 



Bulbs that can be preserved in the house in a dry state during the 

 winter, and planted in the ground in the spring, or those which liye out 

 during the winter and bloom in the house, are called Summer Bulbs. 



To this class belong the Japan Lilies, Gladiolus, Dahlias, Tuberoses, 

 Tigridias, Amaryllis formosissima, Valotta purpurea superba, and Tri- 

 tomas. 



These flowers are of very easy cultivation, and contribute largely to 

 the beauty of the garden ; their magnificent bloom well repaying the 

 little attention they require. The peculiar nature of a bulb is not gen- 

 erally well understood ; it really partakes more of the properties of a 

 seed, for, when in the act of vegetating it sends down into the soil roots, 

 and into the air a living stem, and the matter contained in the bulb 

 decomposes and nourishes the young plant, while the seed (Jecays in 

 giving birth to the plant ; but the bulb is renewed, and from the roots 

 another bulb is composed which appears to be the same one planted, 

 yet it is its offspring, and the offsets or young bulbs are its suckers, and 



