By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 261 



treatment, and in the latter end of the last summer, both 

 bulbs flowered in the same pot with more than ordinary 

 strength, the one flower-stem supporting eighteen, and the 

 other nineteen large blossoms. One of these flowered in the 

 beginning of August, when its blossoms were exposed to the 

 sun and air during the day, and protected by a covering of 

 glass during the night, by which mode of treatment I hoped 

 to obtain seeds; but the experiment was not successful. 

 The blossoms of the other bulb appeared in the latter end 

 of August, and were placed in the same situation in the stove, 

 which the bulb had occupied in the preceding winter ; and 

 I by these means obtained three apparently perfect seeds. 

 One of these, the smallest, and seemingly the least perfect, 

 was placed immediately in a pot in the stove, where it has 

 already produced a plant. The old bulbs have been again 

 placed in the stove, where they have emitted abundant 

 foliage, and in which I do not doubt they will again generate 

 blossoms. 



In the foregoing experiments, I conceive myself to have 

 succeeded in occasioning the same bulbs to afford blos- 

 soms in three successive seasons ; by having first caused 

 the production of a large quantity of true sap, and subse- 

 quently, by the gradual abstraction of moisture, having caused 

 that sap to have become inspissated, and in consequence 

 adapted to the production of blossom buds. Some Gar- 

 deners entertain an opinion that bulbs may be excited to 

 produce blossom buds by being kept very dry, after their 

 leaves have withered: but I believe this opinion to be wholly 

 unfounded ; and that the blossoms are always generated whilst 

 the living foliage remains attached to the bulb. 



