56 CULTIVATION. 



ble to an ordinary mind, where there are so few 

 chances of success. But the thing is done, and 

 constantly, by commercial florists, to whom a 

 new beauty is of considerable importance. 



Propagating by offsets is the usual and most 

 certain method of increasing the stock, and per- 

 petuating the favourite varieties of the tulip. 

 As has already been noticed in the introduction, 

 they, when in vigorous, or even ordinary, health, 

 produce, besides the principal successor-bulb, one, 

 two, or more junior bulbs, which, in the manage- 

 ment of the principal, it is necessary to displace. 

 Such viviparous progeny are planted in nursery- 

 beds by themselves, and are reared and forwarded 

 to a flowering state in the same way as directed 

 for seedlings. They come into flower, sooner or 

 later, according to their size or age ; they then 

 become principals, and are ranked and cultivated 

 therewith. It has also been before noticed, that 

 if the principal be deprived of its flower-stem 

 early in the season, the offset progeny will be 

 increased ; and this kind of mutilation is carried 

 so far by the Dutch florists, as before observed, 



