14 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 



prises. So common have the seedlings become that they 

 are offered in immense quantities by the foreign florists, 

 in mixtures, many of them as unbloomed seedlings. 

 These we have seen in flower, in large numbers, and 

 never saw anything more pleasing. In a house where 

 there were several hundred in bloom, not a poor variety 

 was to be seen, and some were exceptionally flue ; there 

 were no two alike. For purposes of decoration none 

 other than seedlings need be sought. 



Propagation by Seed. — The seed should be sown 

 as soon as ripe, as it does not long retain its vitality. 

 In fact, the seed is, to all appearance, a miniature bulb, 

 which does not change form when put into the earth, 

 other than to lose the coating that surrounds it, but 

 increases in size, like the parent bulb, fast or slow, 

 according to the conditions in which it is placed. The 

 better plan is to sow the seeds singly in thumb-pots 

 of light loam, first securing good drainage ; plunge the 

 pots in clean sand, or ashes, at a temperature of from 60° 

 to 65°. They should be kept in a moist atmosphere, 

 and in partial shade. Under such conditions the young 

 plants will make rapid growth. They need not be shifted 

 from these pots until the bulbs are nearly, or quite, an 

 inch in diameter, or until the pots are completely filled 

 with roots, which will be in about a year. Then they 

 should be changed into three-inch pots, using the same 

 kind of soil, or any strong potting mold. In making the 

 shift, all possible care should be taken to prevent dis- 

 turbing the roots, as nothing else is so fatal to the Ama- 

 ryllis as having its roots injured or bruised. Under 

 favorable conditions, flowering bulbs can be grown from 

 seed in two years. It is a common, in fact, the more 

 general, practice, to sow the seed in pans or flats, and 

 prick them out when the bulbs are about the size of 

 large peas. We do not consider this plan a good one, 

 because in pricking out, the roots are liable to injury, 



