\)32 



THE PRACTICAL CiARDENER. 



away the mould carefully from round the parent bulb with the 

 hand, and widi a blunt stick, or other such instrument, re- 

 moved, so as not to injure the parent bulb. 



By thus sacriticing the young plants, most of that nourish- 

 ment which would have gone for their support, at least while 

 young, will be diverted into the parent bulb, and will be the 

 cause of its flowering much stronger the same season, and of 

 collecting additional strength for that of the succeeding one. 

 Florists, where the saving of seeds is not an object, always 

 pinch oir the flower soon after it begins to decay, so that 

 it may not tend to rob the bulb of an uimecessary degree of 

 food. 



The method of propagation by dividing the roots, is, by 

 separating the young offsets from the i)arent ; bulbs are also 

 propagated by seeds, but this is chiefly done with a view to 

 obtain new or valuable varieties, and is chiefly the province of 

 the amateur florist. Cultivators, in general, being content to 

 })urchase new varieties of them, employ no other mode of 

 t)ropagation but that of separating the bulbs. 



Bulbs in general succeed best in a light rich sandy soil ; 

 but those who are high in the fancy of bulb growing, employ 

 strange mixtures for their best beds of flowers. Each sort of 

 bulb they consider rtHpiires a soil peculiar to them. We will 

 not enter into the detail of those soils and mixtures recom- 

 mended by those who make the flowering of a tulijj or a /if/a- 

 cintli a subject of mystery, being perfectly convinced that all 

 their boasted properties, when once exposed, will be found ot 

 little value. The rational cultivator will be content to employ 

 much fewer and more reasonable ingredients in the preparation 

 of his beds. 



HYACINTHS. 



For the cultivation of this flower, the Dutch have long been 

 notorious, and probably in the first instance as a matter of 

 amusement, have for many years made the propagation of the 

 hyacinth a considerable article of commerce. It appears, that 

 double hyacinths were not known until the beginning of the 

 last century ; for, before that time, single ones only were 

 grown. The first double flower of this kind is said to have 



