BULBOUS PLANTS. 



309 



vice to the cultivator. Europe, especially the cen- 

 tral and southern parts, as well as Asia Minor, is 

 a gTeat centre for bulbs, and so is California, and 

 especially the Cape of Good Hope, for from this region 

 a large proportion of garden bulbs have been intro- 

 duced. The majority of the European bulbs are 

 hardy enough to withstand our climate unprotected, 

 as are also the greater number from North America, 

 but those from the Cape can only be grown success- 

 fully in the open in the most favoured locahties in 

 these islands. South America is a great centre for 

 Amaryllidaceous bulbs. These sometimes inhabit 

 the hottest valleys ; others ascend the mountainous 

 parts so high that some of them may be grown 

 successfully with frame protection; and those that 

 are natives of Chili, and other southern parts of the 

 American continent, are also open-air plants with us. 

 The extreme Eastern world jaelds many bulbous 

 plants, including the many beautiful Himalayan 

 and Japanese Lilies, which may be gxown here out 

 of doors. The Eastern tropics are the headquarters 

 of several rich genera, and from Australia and 

 tropical Africa several fine garden bulbs have been 

 introduced. 



Hence, we have bulbs to suit every class of garden 

 and every part of a garden. Coming as they do 

 from all regions, they flower at all seasons, so that 

 the garden may be enriched with the flowers of 

 bulbs from January to December. The majority of 

 bulbs are deciduous, that is, theii' foliage decays and 

 dies away so soon as the current season's growth is 

 fully perfected. A smaller proportion are ever- 

 green —that is, the f ohage does not periodically die 

 away — and these, for the most part, are natives of 

 the tropics, requiring to be grown in either stove, 

 green-house, or frame. Examj^les of these are 

 Eucharis and Crinum, and familiar examples of de- 

 ciduous bulbs are Tulips, Snowdrops, and nearly all 

 the Lilies. Deciduous bulbs necessarily need dif- 

 ferent treatment from evergTeen, although the main 

 principles of growth apply to both classes. 



The chief point that the cultivator should bear in 

 mind is, that a bulb is a store-house of food elabo 

 rated by the plant during the previous season's 

 growth. This is a provision of nature to enable it 

 to survive excessive drought, heat, or other contin- 

 gencies to which it may be exposed. Thus, in coun- 

 tries where protracted periods of drought occur, the 

 vegetation of such regions either partakes of a 

 bulbous, tuberous, or succulent nature. For ex- 

 a'mple, in South Africa, where bulbous plants pre- 

 ponderate so largely, the long, hot, and dry season 

 is inimical to herbaceous vegetation unless they are 

 provided with some sort of store-house of reserve 

 food. The bulbs of this region have generally a 

 short period of growth. The rainy season begins, 



vegetation awakens, bulbous plants develop foliage 

 and flower, and soon the dry season sets in, when the 

 foliage dies away, having added a fresh supply of 

 food to the bulbs or formed new ones, and they then 

 rest perfectly dry and inert until the next rainy 

 season. 



With tropical bulbs the case is different. There 

 is not such a marked distinction between rest and 

 activity, although the alternation of dry and wet 

 seasons is much the same ; but instead of the atmos- 

 phere being arid during the rainless and cool period, 

 it is sufficiently moist to preserve evergreen plants. 

 Hence, such plants as Eucharis, though they do not 

 lose their foliage yearly, have a season of rest, 

 characterised by a lower temperature, and compara- 

 tively drier atmosphere. These, then, are briefly the 

 principles which should guide the cultivator. 



Bulbous plants, from a cultivator's jDoint of view, 

 may be classed under four heads, namely, (1) Stove, 

 (2) Green-house, (3) Frame, or Half-hardy, and (4) 

 Hardy. The first includes those tropical plants that 

 require abundance of heat and moisture during the 

 growing season. Among these are some species of 

 Amaryllis (l?ij(jjoe<);s^r2o;?), Crinum, Eucharis, Hymeno- 

 callis, Griffinia, Pancratium, and other evergreen 

 spe2ies. Green-house bulbs are those which belong- 

 to sub-tropical regions, and require moderate heat 

 and moisture dui-ing growth, but a cool and dry 

 treatment while at rest. Among these are such as 

 Albuca, Hsemanthus, Cyrtanthus, Nerine. Frame 

 or half-hardy bulbs comprise a great class, and 

 include the majority of the natives of the Cape 

 of Good Hope. Hardy bulbs are those that are 

 capable of enduring all weathers without any 

 artificial heat or protection whatever, though some 

 of them are benefited by shelter when in flower, 

 especially the very early or very late flowers. 



All the plants described or mentioned in the fol- 

 lowing chapters fall under one of these four heads. 



Stove Bulbs. — These being for the most part 

 evergreen, they may be grown under precisely the 

 same conditions as ordinary stove plants, directions 

 for which are given in other parts of this work. 

 The only exception with bulbs is, that they must in 

 all cases be allowed a season of rest, otherwise, 

 if kept in a continual state of activity, the bulbs are 

 weakened. No definite rule can be given when this 

 resting reason is to take place ; that must be decided 

 by the cultivator ; but, generally speaking, the end of 

 summer and autumn is the natural resting period for 

 stove bulbs — that is, after they have flowered, and 

 their foliage is fully developed. Then water may be 

 applied moderately ; but in the case of evergreen 

 bulbs it must not be entirely withheld, which would 

 cause the bulbs to shrivel. A period ranging from 



