HAA11LEM. 177 



flowering varieties ; and the fifth, single flowers, with the 

 bells or blossoms of the finest colours and shapes, and of the 

 largest size. In ordinary seasons, they told us, the hya- 

 cinths are in full glory between the 20th and 30th of April ; 

 and we have no doubt, that the effect must be as brilliant, 

 and the fragrance as delightful, as Messrs Ereps emphati- 

 cally described. These beds are four feet wide, and of con- 

 siderable length. They are raised more than half a foot 

 above the natural surface of the soil. The sides and ends 

 are supported by deal-boards, an inch and a half thick, 

 and nine inches deep. These marginal boards are placed 

 on the surface of the natural soil, and alleys, about three 

 feet wide, are left between the beds. The prepared soil for 

 these beds is renewed annually. After the bulbs are lifted 

 in summer, the compost in which they grew is removed, to 

 the depth of the boards or a little more, and the subsoil is 

 digged over : a new layer of compost of equal depth is after- 

 wards introduced ; and in this, the choice bulbs are again 

 planted in the autumn. The compost consists of pure 

 white sand, rotted leaves of trees, fine peat-earth, and a 

 small proportion of thoroughly rotted cow-dung ; the whole 

 very well intermixed and reduced, by being often turned 

 over. The natural soil, it is to be remarked, is here well 

 adapted for receiving the extreme fibres of the roots ; other- 

 wise a deeper layer of compost would be required. 



Tulips are treated much in the same way ; but for them 

 a more tenacious soil is desirable. Kreps and Company 

 have also a valuable collection of these : but hyacinths re- 

 quire and receive more attention, and are in higher estima- 

 tion with Dutch florists at present, than tulips. 



Besides hyacinths and tulips, ranunculuses and anemo- 

 nes, together with other showy plants that have either bulb- 

 ous or tuberous roots, are cultivated, and propagated for 



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