230 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
leave?, on a gravelly substratum. Since I have 
lived in Yorkshire, I have been able to find 
no soil that suited it, and although many 
changes were tried, the plants dwindled and 
all perished ; nor have I found any species of 
Cyrtanthus succeed well in tbe soil to which 
I have access here. Mr. Rollison bad equal 
success with Cyrtanthus angustifolius in bis 
nursery at Tooting, near Mitcbam. ' 
" ' Tbe recollection,' be adds, 'that Hippe- 
astrum equestre, single and double, which will 
not exist in tbe soils to which I bave access in 
Yorkshire, throve exceedingly with me at 
Mitcbam, in Surrey, in the same soil that 
suited the Cyrtanthus angustifolius, and that 
all tbe Cyrtanthiform bulbs are disposed to 
rot in light earth at Spofforth, persuades me 
that wherever their cultivation is found diffi- 
cult, a soil that is more disposed to set firm, 
and not to fall to pieces when turned out of 
the pot, should be substituted, with good 
drainage and cautious watering. The diffi- 
culty is to find a light soil wbich has a little 
tenacity. There is a yellow earth of that 
nature in wbich I bave observed Erica cinerea 
thrive with much greater vigour than in black 
soil in the neighbourhood of the New Forest, 
which would perhaps suit the Cyrtanthi.' — 
See Herbert's Amaryllidacece. 
" With respect to peat, Mr. Herbert says, 
' I bave lost so many bulbs by the use of peat 
at various times that I am generally fearful of 
using it. There is so much variety in the 
vegetable black earth of different places, that 
it should be tried cautiously.' By reverting 
to Avhat we have said above respecting peat 
soils, in our general observations, some of the 
causes of these differences may be seen ; but, 
after all, tbe cautious trial recommended by 
Mr. Herbert, is the best guide. 
" Seed should be carefully saved from tbe 
best and most curious flowers, and when fully 
ripened, after having been hardened a little in 
the sun, should be sown in boxes of light rich 
earth, setting them in a sheltered sunny 
situation, but not under cover. This is usually 
done about the latter end of August or begin- 
ning of the following month; large sorts being 
covered to the depth of nearly an inch, and 
smaller sorts half an inch. A little water 
should be occasionally given when the season 
is dry, to keep the soil moist, but not wet. 
The seeds may be protected till they come 
up by a little covering of some kind of strawy 
material. Other sowings may be made in 
March, or the following month, the boxes 
being brought into southern exposures, 
when there is only the morning sun towards 
May. 
"After Culture op Seedlings. — The 
young seedling plants should be protected 
in severe frosty weather, and when there is 
much rain, by means of mats and hoops, and 
a reed hurdle, or other contrivance, to break 
oil' the north-east winds. The young plants 
should likewise; be kept properly thinned out, 
and perfectly free from weeds. When the 
stems decay, a little mould should be put 
upon them, to the thickness of half an inch. 
In the following summer, when the leaves 
decay, as about August, they should be planted 
out into nursery-beds, at the distance of two 
or three inches, according to the kinds. Some 
sorts require to be removed from these into 
other nursery-beds as soon as their tops decline, 
and set at six inches distance ; or it is pro- 
bably a better practice to thin them out to this 
distance in tbe first beds. After this they are 
to be managed as blowing plants. These sorts 
of roots blow at different lengths of time, after 
being raised, some in tbe first, some in the 
following year, and others not till several 
years afterwards. 
"In all such plants a store of prepared pulp 
is laid up in the bulb each season, for pro- 
ducing tbe stems or flowers the succeeding 
season. It is clear, then, that the more pulp 
there is stored up, or, in other words, tbe 
larger and plumper the bulbs are produced, 
the stronger and finer will the stems and 
flowers afterwards grow. Now as flowering 
and fruiting exhaust the pulp, let every flower 
in the seedlings be pinched off in the early 
bud, if they offer to blow, while the leaves 
must be left on the stem to prepare pulp for 
the root store, and make larger flower-buds in 
the centre for after blowing. In this way 
finer and larger bulbs can be produced than in 
any other way. It injures many bulbs, how- 
ever, to break the flower-stem, as we shall 
revert to under Tulips. 
"Propagation by Stem Bulbs. — Some 
species, such as the Tiger Lily, produce on tbe 
sides of the top parts of their stems, at the 
inner base of tbe leaves, small dark coloured 
bulbs, or buds, if they may be termed so, from 
which young plants may be raised. The stem 
bulbs should be taken off in August, and, after 
being dried for a few days in tbe sun, ought 
to be planted out in rows in the same manner 
as the young offsets from the root bulbs. 
"Improvement of Bulbs by Drying. — 
It is important to recapitulate here what has 
elsewhere * been stated, respecting the pe- 
riodical activity and rest of plants, it being- 
necessary for their permanent health that they 
should have intervals of repose succeeding to 
activity, no less than sleep is necessary to 
animals. In various processes of artificial 
management, the perfecting or extending this 
period of repose is found to be productive of 
very marked effects. By putting plants in a 
Alphabet of Scientific Gardening, p. 118. 
