42 



THE PLOTTER GARDEN. 



vium. In the saffron harvest, not only are the women 

 who separate the pistil from the petal of the flowers, 

 obliged to keep up a strong current of air in the room 

 where they are at work, and are often compelled to leave 

 their task and recover themselves in the open air from 

 the stupifying influence of the odour given out, but even 

 the saffron-gatherers in the field (mostly women) are 

 attacked now and then by drowsiness followed by fainting- 

 fits. Double sashes and glass cases, i.e. miniature close- 

 shutting greenhouses, afford the best means of gratifying 

 the sense of sight, in the case of strong-scented flowers, 

 without offending the sense of smelling. 



Narcissuses may be bloomed, like hyacinths, in glasses ; 

 but it is not the object of the present Book to indicate 

 the worst mode of growing flowers. In pots they may be 

 treated exactly like hyacinths, with a still more liberal 

 supply of water, and in even lighter compost. It requires 

 one kind of soil (rich and substantial) to bring the bulbs 

 to their full strength, and another (more poor and sandy 

 in its nature) to produce the utmost perfection of bloom. 

 This explains why imported roots flower better than those 

 in ordinary garden borders ; demonstrating that even in 

 floriculture, a division of labour has its advantages. To 

 narcissuses, as to other bulbs, the rule may be applied : 

 " Take care of the leaves, and the flowers will take care 

 of themselves." To return again to the instance of saf- 

 fron : when the flowers are all gathered, and the field is 

 green in winter with the rank long leaves, its proprietor 

 is carefully anxious to fence out hares and rabbits (which 

 are fond of the plant), and to prevent them from feeding 

 on the foliage, which is of no use to its owner, because 

 experience has told him that if that is injured, his next 

 year's saffron will be proportionately defective. 



Snowdrop — Galantines nivalis. — Although so common 

 and easily-grown a flower, a garden without snowdrops 

 would be sadly incomplete. There are single and double 

 snowdrops ; the former is, to many eyes, the more grace- 

 ful ; it has also the merit of being somewhat earlier and 

 of best deserving its Trench name, Perceneige, or Pierce- 



