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ON RAISING NATIVE HYACINTHS. ~ 
well to bear in mind that they do not require so much water as they would if more 
exposed ; neither should they in any situation, but in this particularly, be left open to 
the direct influence of the sun : stiii let it be understood that they cannot have too 
much light. Plants such as these when very young are much better placed near 
the glass, but in this case it is necessary to watch against injuries from the sun, &c. 
In an evening, when the weather is fine, a little water sprinkled over the leaves 
will benefit them much, and if the pot has been well drained, a frequent repetition 
will not prove injurious. They are propagated with great difficulty from cuttings; 
the well ripened wood should be preferred, and the cuttings, when cleverly prepared, 
being cut neatly at the joint, should be planted in a pot of sand, placed under a 
glass in a close frame, pit, or greenhouse, but by no means plunged. The practice 
of searing the wounded part previous to putting in the cuttings has been advan- 
tageously practised, and in one particular merits attention as promising success 
in multiplying this desirable plant. It is by cutting the bark off the branch- 
through nearly — say a week or two before taking it off the plant; by this means the 
bleeding, which operates so much against the successful propagation of this plant, is 
lessened, and the wound, comparatively speaking, is healed, except the bit of bark 
that remains. The Chinese method of propagation, viz., ringing the branch, and 
placing a little good soil and moss round the wound, may be practised on this plant, 
and no doubt with great success. 
ON RAISING NATIVE HYACINTHS. 
The plants which have flowered in glasses or pots produce better offsets than 
those raised in beds ; these, together with the mother and now reduced bulb, 
plant at the usual season. The old bulb affords considerable nourishment to the 
young plants, which rise with great strength the following spring. When the 
leaves assume a yellow hue the plants are to be taken up, and replanted the same 
day in prepared beds ; the stronger by themselves. The strongest plants will 
show blossoms the following spring, some of them having from twelve to twenty 
bells, or pips ; these should be reduced to three or four, which should be left on 
the extremity to draw up the sap. Were the whole suffered to remain, the plant 
would be much exhausted in flowering; and if wholly taken off, it receives a great 
check. The bulbs are again to be taken up in October, and replanted as before, 
not permitting them to remain any time out of the ground. Moisture seems 
essential to the perfection of the hyacinth ; and I find that those which remain 
in the ground, and of course subject to its influence, are not at any time affected 
with the ring disease, by which many of those which are placed in the stove are 
lost every season. 
The compost best suited for them is, one barrowful of loam from rocky places, 
one ditto well rotted cow- dung. This should, if possible, be three years old ; one 
third of a barrow of mould, produced from rotted tree-leaves, and about a fifth 
of a barrow from an old cucumber-bed. With this the bed is to be made two and 
a half feet deep, and the surface covered with turf-mould, to preserve the bulbs 
rom frost. 
