262 FLOWER GARDEN. 
foliage. within half an inch of the bulb, but leaving the 
fibres untouched, to lay the bulbs sideways on the ground, 
covering them with half an inch of dry earth. : After three 
weeks, they are again taken up, cleaned, and. removed to 
the store room.. In this’ country, it is more common to 
allow them to stand till the-leaves. be withered, and then to 
diz them up:at once.!. In the store-room the roots should 
be kept dry, well aired, and apart from each other. 
‘Where forcing is: practiced, a few hyacinths may, be 
forced into deep flower-pots filled::with light earth, and, 
when coming into flower, transferred to the green-house, 
which they enliven at'the most dead season of. the year. 
In chambers, they are grown in water-glasses made.for the 
purpose; or, with still greater advantage, in boxes filled 
with damp hypnum-moss. Son a 
New varieties of hyacinths are procured by «sowing the 
seed; but this is a tedious process, and seldom followed 
in this'country. The established sorts are propagated by 
offsets or small bulbs, which form at the base of the parent 
bulb. Almost all the hyacinths cultivated in this country 
are imported from: Holland, and the quantity of roots an- 
nually introduced must be very great. 
The Tudip, Tulipa Gesneriana, is a native of the fas 
whence it was introduced into 'Hurope about the middle of 
the sixteenth century. Gaudy as it is, it has no proper 
corolla, but ‘only a calyx of six colored sepals. About the 
year 1635, the culture of the tulip was very engrossing ; 
and, indeed, the rage for possessing choice sorts had become 
so great'in Holland as to give rise to a strange species of 
gambling, known to the collectors of literary and scientific 
anecdotes by the name of Tulipo-mania, which has tended 
to bring unmerited discredit on this fine flower. At pre- 
sent, the finer tulips are mostly of moderate price, and 
