May.] flower GARDEN. 393 
them, their loose skins taken off, with such offsets as may be easily 
separated. 
When this dressing is finished; the bulbs are wrapped up in se- 
parate pieces of paper, or buried in sand, made effectually dry for 
that purpose, where they remain till the return of the season for 
planting. 
Another, and less troublesome, mode of treatment after bloom, 
though perhaps more hazardous, is to suffer the roots to remain in 
the bed till the stems and foliage appear nearly dried up and con- 
sumed; this will seldom happen to be the case in less than two 
months after bloom; the bulbs are then to be taken up, cleaned 
from the fibres, soil, &c. and spread to dry and harden on the floor 
of an airy room, for about three weeks, then to be .preserved in sand 
or paper as before directed. Or they may be deposited in dry bar- 
ley chaff", saw-dust, or kept on open shelves out of the sun and wet; 
but too much exposure to the air often destroys many roots, and 
materially injures the whole. 
Others again take up the roots at the first mentioned period, 
cutting off' the flower stems but not the foliage, and prepare a bed 
of light earth, either where the hyacinths had grown, or in any 
other convenient place; forming it into a high sloping ridge, east 
and west; on the north side of which, they place the roots in rows, 
so as that the bulbs do not touch, and in a horizontal manner, co- 
vering the roots and fibres with the earth, and suffering the leaves 
to hang down the ridges; here they remain till the bulbs are suffi- 
ciently ripened, and then are taken up and treated as before. 
Tulips. 
Continue to protect the fine late tulips, yet in flowers, as directed 
last month in page 342, and treat them in every respect as there 
advised. 
As soon as the petals or flowers fall, the seed-vessel of each 
should be immediately broken off", or if suffered to remain and ri- 
pen seed, it would procrastinate the maturity of the roots, and con- 
siderably weaken them. 
Towards the end of the month, or rather when the grass or fo- 
liage becomes of a yellowish-brown, not before, which will happen 
sooner or later according to season, climate, soil and situation, and 
a few inches of the top or stem appears dry, purplish, and 
withered, you are to take up the roots of such as you particularly 
esteem; for this is the critical period for that work, because if 
done earlier, they would be weak and spongy, and deferred later, 
their juices would become gross; which would appear manifest at 
the succeeding bloom by too great a redundance of colorific matter 
in the petals, and the flowers would be what is generally termed 
foul. 
When the roots are taken up, they are to be laid in a dry shady 
place and gradually dried; observing to keep each variety of the 
superb kinds separate, that in planting, you may know how to di- 
versify the bed, according to fancy, either as to intermixture of 
3B 
