Oct.] 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



931 



All bulbs may be with propriety taken up when their leaves 

 wither and decay, but not sooner ; for, if a bulb be dis- 

 turbed while its leaves are making, or before it shows evident 

 signs of being ripe, it is very much injured, and often entirely 

 killed. The leaves of all plants serve most essential purposes, 

 and the health of the majority of plants is affected, more or 

 less, when these are either destroyed, taken off, or injured, and 

 the bulbs, in a particular degree ; for, if these be taken off, or 

 even much injured, or the bulb transplanted without sufficient 

 care, so that no check be given to its growth, the bulb will be 

 so much injured that it will not be in a fit state to flower the 

 succeeding year, or probably for the second or third following. 



The exact time that bulbs should remain out of the ground 

 is difficult to determine ; we not unfrequently see bulbs prosper 

 well which are taken up one day and planted the next, while 

 others of the same species may be kept out of the gi'ound for 

 months, and litde difference is seen in the strength or beauty 

 of their flowers. 



The object which cultivators have in view, generally, in re- 

 moving bulbs for a time from the ground, is, first, to separate 

 the young or small ones, for the purpose of propagation, and 

 to facilitate their being planted at more regular distances ; 

 and, secondly, to set the bulbs more completely at rest, and 

 thereby render them considerably more excitable when again 

 planted. 



Some bulbous-rooted plants propagate so rapidly, as, for 

 instance, some species of OruitJiogalum, Scilla, Muscari^ 

 OxaliSy AUiiim, and Iris, by throwing out so many young 

 bulbs, that they really cease to send up flower-stalks. To re- 

 medy this evil, they should be annually taken up, their young 

 bulbs removed, and the parent, or some of the strongest ones, 

 planted singly, where it is desirable that they should flower ; 

 or, by sacrificing the offspring, by destroying the young leaves 

 as they appear, the old bulb will send up its flower-stalk an- 

 nually. Where the object is rather to increase the bulb for 

 flowering than the propagation of the species, the young bulbs 

 should be destroyed as soon as they are known to exist, which 

 will be determined by their sending up young leaves ; these 

 young bulbs should bo destroyed or displaced by clearing 



