10 BULLETIN 962, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
account of the very large root:system they can not be put low enough 
in pots of smaller size. There will be a goodly percentage of 
them, however, which can go into 4-inch and 5-inch pots. Whenever 
this is possible they should go into these small pots and be shifted to 
6-inch pots when the smaller sizes are filled with roots. 
LOSS OF LEAFAGE IN REPOTTING FROM THE FIELD. 
It frequently happens that a goodly percentage of the bulbs, 
especially those which consist of the smallest number of basal 
leaves, lose all their leafage before they are placed in pots. No 
Fic. 5.—Digging Easter lily seedlings in October, 1920. The seed was sown on No- 
vember 1, 1919. The plants are to be potted for winter flowering. Those which 
have not already flowered wiil be potted with the tops on and will not wilt. 
change in handling is necessitated by this loss, these bulbs being 
potted and treated precisely like the others. 
A most remarkable thing is the subsequent loss of leafage by the 
plants as they grow in the greenhouse. Those plants which are in 
the form of rosettes when repotted will in a few weeks be seen to lose 
their lower leaves gradually, so that by Christmas there will be but 
little of the field leafage left. Of course, the leaves in this case are 
from bulb scales. The loss never simulates wilting or any other 
apparently unhealthy condition, but looks simply lke a gradual 
ripening process. 
This loss of leafage is by no means confined to the scale leaves. The 
same loss takes place in the stem leaves of those plants which were 
