120 BULBS AND TUBEBOUS-BOOTED PLANTS. 



return to the same soil in less than three years. Disease 

 will always follow repeated plantings in the same soil. 

 This is one reason why failures and loss of plants are so 

 frequent. 



Deterioration in Gladiolus. — The question is 

 often asked, "Does the Gladiolus run out, or deteriorate, 

 and does it eyer revert back to the species ? " Many 

 amateurs have asserted that theirs have changed ; that 

 where two years ago they had none other than the best, 

 now they had none but the poorest. We have ever held 

 this to be impossible ; but that a change in the general 

 appearance of the bed might come because of the fact 

 that some varieties increase rapidly by division, while 

 others rapidly die out because of feeble constitutions. 



"But," says a great admirer of the Gladiolus, "I 

 never had in my collection any such colors as are now 

 the predominating ones in my garden ; they are not as 

 good as the original G-andavensis." We replied that is 

 simply an impossibility, unless aided by human hands. 

 Two years after, he again commenced with an entirely 

 new collection ; as yet he has not made his report, which 

 we are fearful will be as unfavorable as the first. 



We will give the reasons for our fears. Three years 

 ago we planted our stock of Adanson, one of the grand- 

 est of the rosy-lilac kinds, consisting of several thousand 

 corms, which we knew to be absolutely free from mix- 

 ture. When they came into flower, to our surprise, 

 more than one-half of the lot was as far from the type as 

 it was possible to get, having a color we had never before 

 seen, something like that of Psittacinus, while the form 

 was not unlike that of Adanson. In this matter we 

 could not be deceived, as we had never a flower of the 

 kind on the place. That season, as well as last year, we 

 marked every bulb that was true to its description, and 

 this year the same change is as apparent as before. 

 What is more singular, this interpolator is nowhere else 



