Soil and Culture 35 
personality, and becomes a creature of 
portentous quality, when its long, watched- 
over development is realized. 
Bulbs which are planted in the perma- 
nent garden and left untouched year 
after year, carry on this reproductive 
work all the time, and are consequently 
at all times in all stages of growth. 
Therefore there are always offsets from 
the original bulb planted, long after this 
has disappeared, which are blooming ; and 
others from these which will take up the 
work where these leave off, and so on in- 
definitely. For this reason, however, it is 
well to lift and divide clumps every third 
or fourth year usually, lest they become 
too crowded by their own reproduction. 
Because the full-size bulbs must have 
a season or two in which to reproduce, 
after blooming once in the garden here, 
it is really better to buy for the garden 
smaller bulbs; these will immediately be- 
gin producing offsets, even while bloom- 
ing themselves (it is not to be understood 
that only the extra large bulbs produce 
