BULBOUS PLANTS. 



39 



The Colchicums or narcissus are hardy bulbs, and will grow in 

 any sort of ground ; only, the better the soil is, the finer they 

 will flower. 



The Guernsey Lily and Belladonna will not thrive in the open 

 ground, therefore it is needless to speak of those very splendid 

 flowers. 



The Lily of the Valley, though scarcely to be classed among 

 the lily tribe, is a beautiful flower, and as fragrant as it is lovely. 

 They must be multiplied by dividing the roots, which should be 

 parted with a knife, as they are very intricate : do this in Decem- 

 ber. Plant them three inches deep in the ground, and disturb 

 them as little as you can help, as they do not like to be often 

 moved. They are larger in their flowers when grown in the 

 shade, but they are sweeter in perfume in the sun's full rays. 

 Thin broad leaves are sufficient shelter to the flowers. 



All bulbs love salt : be careful, therefore, to throw a portion 

 of common salt or brine upon your compost heap. My cousin, 

 Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq., in his " Observations on the Em- 

 ployment of Salt," quotes a passage in a letter addressed to him 

 by Mr. Thomas Hogg, the eminent florist, upon the advantages 

 of salt in the cultivation of flowers. I will transcribe it here : — 



"From the few experiments that I have tried with salt as a garden ma- 

 nure, I am fully prepared to bear testimony to its usefulness. In a treatise 

 upon flowers, published about six years since, I remarked, that the applica- 

 tion of salt, and its utility as a manure, was yet imperfectly understood. It 

 is a* matter of uncertainty, whether it acts directly as a manure, or only as a 

 kind of spice or seasoning, thereby rendering the soil a more palatable food 

 for plants. 



" The idea that first suggested itself to my mind, arose from contemplating 

 the successful culture of hyacinths in Holland. This root, though not in- 

 digenous to the country, may be said to be completely naturalized in the 

 neighborhood of Haerlem, where it grows luxuriantly in a deep, sandy, allu- 

 vial soil : yet one great cause of its free gro vth, I considered, was owing to 

 the saline atmosphere : this induced me to mix salt in the compost ; and I 



