156 



PAXTON'S FLO WEE GAEDEN. 



hidden by the masses of flowers, which tell out as bright spots in the spring garden, 

 some of the scapes bearing from eight to ten flowers, one inch in diameter. I have had 

 it in flower for nearly a month in the cold frame, where it attains a higher stature, 

 though not quite so rich in colour as the flowers produced in the open air. For pot 

 culture and forcing I believe it will be very useful, and take a prominent place amongst 

 early decorative plants. It produces seed very freely, and will therefore be capable of 

 ready multiplication. I obtained with the typical blue form a few bulbs of a pretty 

 pure white variety." — Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. xi., p. 474. 



These particulars at once point to the kind of treatment which the plant requires 

 at the hands of the cultivator. The altitude in the country where it is found indigenous, 

 almost bordering upon the snow-line, shows that in hardihood and time of flowering it 

 will be a companion to those hardy favourite gems of spring, the Scillas, which in colour 

 it rivals. The fact of its growing freely from seed is fortunate, as otherwise, like most 

 bulbous plants that only increase from the off-sets they make, the propagation would be 

 comparatively slow. As it is, the seedlings may be expected to attain full strength in 

 two or three years, treated in a similar way to Scillas grown from seed. 



Both on account of the season of its blooming — early in spring, when every flower 

 that makes its appearance out of doors is doubly acceptable — and because of its lovely 

 shade of blue, a colour anything but plentiful in flowering plants, this plant is an un- 

 doubted acquisition, and no doubt as it gets plentiful it will find a place in the gardens 

 of all who delight in hardy flowers. It would appear to be somewhat sportive in colour, 

 as occasionally it is met with in white garb. As to soil, Ave have no doubt that it will 

 grow in any ordinary loam of fair quality, or in a mixture of peat and loam — always, 

 however, in a position where there is no stagnant water present. One great point in the 

 cultivation o£ spring flowering bulbous plants that make their growth early and then 

 die down is that after blooming they have enough space for the full development of 

 their foliage without being too much crowded with other plants, and that their leaves are 

 in no way disturbed or interfered with until they have died down. The removal of the 

 leaves before they have lost their vitality, and the transplantation of the bulbs after they 

 have commenced growing, are the two principal causes of failure with hardy bulbous 

 plants. 



