GUERNSEY LILY. 



155 



most efficiently when they are young, and have just attained their full 

 growth. The bulb of tne Guernsey hly, as is usually cultiyated in this 

 country, rarely produces leaves tiU September, or the beginning of October, 

 at which period the quantity of hght afforded by our chmate is probably 

 quite insufficient for a plant, which is said to be a native of the warm and 

 bright chmate of Japan ; and before the return of spring, its leaves are 

 necessarily full grown, and nearly out of office, even when they have been 

 safely protected from frost during the winter. Is it, therefore, not extra- 

 ordinary, that a bulb of this species, which has once expended itself in 

 producing flowers, should but very slowly recover the power of blossoming 

 again ? Considering, therefore, the deficiency of light and heat, owing to 

 the late period of its vegetation, as the chief cause why this plant so 

 often fails to produce flowers, I inferred, that nothing more would be re- 

 qmred to make it blossom as freely, at least, as it does in Guernsey, than 

 such a shght degree of artificial heat apphed early in summer, as would 

 prove sufficient to make the bulbs vegetate a few weeks earlier than usual 

 in the autumn. Early in the summer of 1816, a bulb which had blossomed 

 in the preceding autumn was subjected to such a degree of artificial heat, 

 as occasioned it to vegetate six weeks, or more, eai'her than it would other- 

 wise have done. It did not, of course, produce any flowers ; but in the 

 following season it blossomed early and strongly, and afforded two offsets ; 

 these were put into pots in the spring of 1818, containing about one-eighth 

 of a square foot of hght, rich mould, and were fed with manm-ed water, 

 and the period of their vegetation was again accelerated ])y artificial heat. 

 Their leaves, consequently, grew yeUow from maturity early in the present 

 spring, when the pots were placed in a rather shaded situation near a north 

 wall, to afford me an opportunity of observing to what extent, in such a 

 situation, the early production of the leaves, in the preceding season, had 

 changed the habit of the plant. I entertained no doubt but that both the 

 bulbs woidd produce blossoms, but I was much gratified by the appearance 

 of the blossoms in the first week in July. From the success of the pre- 

 ceding experiment, I conclude, that if the offsets, and probably the bulbs 

 of this plant which had produced flowers, be placed in a moderate hot- 

 bed in the end of May, to occasion the early production of their leaves, 

 blossoms would be constantly afforded in the following season ; but it vriW 

 be expedient to habituate the leaves thus produced gradually to the open 

 air, as soon as they are nearly fuUy grown, and to protect them from frost 

 till the approach of spring." 



The whole routine of culture required for the genus Nerine, may be 

 conveyed in the following rules : — Encourage a vigourous growth of leaf 



