68 
BOTANICAL INDEX 
Fig. 139. Fig. 140. Fig. 141. 
SCILLA. LiNNiEus. 
|T is always desirable to add to the flower garden each year, a few varieties of 
hardy plants, bulbs or shrubs that may remain for a number of years undis- 
turbed in the ground and still flourish or retain their usual vigorous charac- 
ters under ordinary cultivation, or even seeming neglect. Many of our 
highly cultivated kinds of imported flowering bulbs make a truly grand dis- 
play for one, or sometimes two seasons, but they soon deteriorate into their 
normal condition, and then are so inferior to freshly imported bulbs that they are 
not worth cultivating and must be replaced each year, or at most, every second year. 
For this reason something must be obtained of a more permanent character, or per- 
haps we should say, something must be used that has not reached such a high point 
of cultivation, that when it returns to its original condition it will not compare so 
unfavorably with the same varieties offered each season by dealers. Nothing seems 
to meet the desired wants better than some species of the Scilln, and for many rea- 
sons they are far superior to most any other bulbs. [l.J Cultivation has not yet 
worked the marvelous changes in the Scillas it has in most other garden plants, 
and the bulbs we purchase from the dealers are pretty sure to be the original species, 
and a few more years of cultivation will not be liable to leave us in possession of 
degenerated and worthless bulbs. [2.] The bulbs are usually small and capable of 
enduring a vast amount of exhaustion, and still renew their former vigor, with half 
a chance for life, while other kinds of bulbs loose all their vitality and die with 
even less exposure. Several species are natives of the far north, or of heigh eleva- 
tions on mountain ranges in the warmer portions of the world, consequently they 
are among our hardiest plants, and capable of enduring any amount of freezing, 
provided, of course, they are planted in the ground ; at the same time if they are 
planted rather deep in the ground, they would not be injured by the extreme heat of 
Summer. This is also a very important consideration with people living in the 
great central portion of the North American Continent, for the long, hot and dry 
Summer debars us, to a large extent, from producing the splendid show of flowers 
during a large portion of the year with which our friends in moister climates are 
favored. We have often suggested, and our observation bears us out in the assertion, 
that one great reason bulbous plants do so poorly, as a rule in the West, is their not 
being planted deep enough to withstand the cooking process of a western Summer’s 
Sun; but to plant deep, the ground must be well drained and mellow, for if bulbs 
were planted deep in heavy clay, the delicate leaf and flower stem would never pen- 
etrate the tough, resisting mass. True, mulching would, in a measure, protect the 
bulbs from the heat of the sun, but nobody mulches plants and very few mulch 
trees and small fruit bushes; still every good catalogue and every Horticultural pa- 
per repeats the injunction — mulch all young trees and small fruit plants. The truth is, 
no one has time to do it. 
Nearly all the Bulb Catalogues, issued by tlie nursery man and florist, contain 
the anouncement that the firm issuing said Catalogue offer for sale from one to a 
dozen or more varieties of Scillas, generally at a very low price. They are usually 
all foreign varieties, so offered, and being natives of a great variety of climates, are 
well adapted to all localities and conditions. The hardier species for planting in 
