30 
EARLY FLOWERING BULBS. 
delight in a mixture of turfy peat, loam, and sand; tlie roots 
should be placed four or five together of the smaller sorts, and a 
single one of the large kinds, into forty-eight-sized pots, burying 
them half an inch above their crowns; this should be done as 
early in autumn as they can be procured, and through the 
winter the pots may stand under the stage, or in any out-of-the- 
way place, till the young leaves are seen coming through the 
soil, when a light airy shelf will be required for them, and till 
the flowers are developed, they should stand close to the glass, lest 
the foliage be drawn up in a weakly manner; this is the only 
point in the management in which it is possible to commit an 
error. The supply of water must be proportionate to the pro¬ 
gress and the state of the mould; they only require enough to 
keep it just moist, and after blooming, the pots may be set in the 
open air at the foot of a wall, and remain there till the bulbs are 
again dry. 
Lachenalias are very beautiful from the middle of February 
till May ; the earliest to bloom is contaminata which has whitish 
flowers, and orchioides, yellow ; but the handsomest of the genus 
are the species pendula , quadricolor , luteola , and their varieties ; 
pendula has rich, bright green leaves, blotched with black ; its 
flowers are produced in a spike as large, and in form resembling 
those of a hyacinth, but rather longer; they are yellow at the 
footstalk, red in the middle, and green at the mouth; there is a 
variety of this with leaves of an entire colour. The best variety 
of quadricolor resembles pendula in its leaves and mode of grow¬ 
ing, but the flowers are larger, and the colours much brighter, 
especially the red, which in this is nearly scarlet. Luteola has 
flowers entirely yellow, and its variety maculata possesses the 
richly-marked foliage of the first-mentioned species; their 
flowers continue in perfection for quite two months. Next to 
them in beauty, and season of flowering, are the species Jlava , 
bright yellow ; patula, white and rose ; rosea, rose; and race - 
mosa , white : there are several others, but the above are sufficient, 
if only a couple of each are grown, to keep the erection gay from 
March till the beginning of June. They should be potted in 
very sandy peat, placing three bulbs together, and these should 
be left undisturbed for several years, as they object to frequent 
removals, and are easily injured by tearing the roots asunder. 
