SPRING BULBS AND AUTUMN FLOWERS. 67 
shape and a rich scarlet hue. It will bear planting out of 
doors in May, when it will bloom quite late, sending forth 
flowers two or three times in one season. 
This variety can also be grown in water, like a hyacinth, 
making a lovely contrast to the white, blush, and pale-buff 
ones. 
Other varieties afford the most varied hues and shades 
in white, red, yellow, and violet, both plain and striped, and 
one exquisite species, known as the Lily of the Virgin, is 
pale pink tipped with rose. 
To insure the best success, these bulbs should be “ pot¬ 
ted in good fibrous loam with about one third leaf mold, 
and some well-decomposed manure and silver sand added, 
then started in heat, and have attention after flowering to 
ripen off, discontinuing water as the foliage shows signs of 
going off, but avoid shriveling the leaves. With a mod¬ 
erate collection of these bulbs, a succession of their beauti¬ 
ful flowers may be had all the year round.” 
One of the richest of autumn flowers is the salvia, or 
Mexican sage. Of an intense cherry-scarlet that deepens 
with the coolness of the weather, it is in a perfect blaze of 
beauty by October, but it is so late in attaining its perfec¬ 
tion that it is liable to be nipped by the frost before it has 
done its best. There is a blue variety which is also very 
pretty, but not so common as the red. 
Petunias also rank as autumn flowers, but they seem to 
be in bloom a great portion of the summer, and keep on 
blooming to the very last. They are particularly desirable 
as bedding plants, and, although rather coarse in character, 
some of them are of delicate shape and exquisitely tinted 
and mottled. Some of the double varieties are very hand¬ 
some. They can be raised either from seeds or slips. 
Mr. Copeland says : “ Do not neglect petunias. They 
are such strong and coarse-growing plants that we might 
at first doubt the possibility of getting much color from 
