May.J flower-garden. 391 
placed ai'chwise over the beds for their support. These should be 
laid on every day, when the sun shines powerfully, about nine or 
ten o'clock in the morning, and taken off at four or five in the af- 
ternoon. 
When hyacinths are past flower, let them always be fully exposed 
to the weather, except in very heavy torrents of rain, from which 
they should be catefully protected. 
It is the practice in Holland to take up the bulbs, about a month 
after the bloom is completely over, in the following manner: as 
soon as the plants begin to put on a yellowish decayed appearance, 
they take up tlie roots and cut off the stem and foliage, within an 
inch, or half an inch of the bulb, but leave the fibres, &c. attached 
to it; they then place the bulbs again on the same bed, with their 
points towards the north, and cover them about an inch deep, with 
dry earth or sand in form of a ridge, or in little cones over each 
bulb: in this state they remain about three weeks longer, and dry 
or ripen gradually; during which period the bed is preserved from 
heavy rains or too much sun, but at all other times exposed to the 
full air; at the expiration of this period, th*e bulbs are taken up, and 
their fibres, which are become dry and withered, cut or gently 
rubbed off; they are then placed in a dry room for two or three 
weeks, and are afterwards cleaned from any soil that adheres to 
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 tlian two 
months after bloom; the bulbs are then to be taken up, cleaned 
from the fibres, soil, 8cc. 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. 
