20 
times bulbs are called corms and bulblets are designated 
as cormels. 
A healthy bulb almost never fails to grow, but the 
germination of a large percentage of the bulblets of 
most varieties is quite a problem and is treated of at 
length under Germination. 
Bulbs from seeds are known as seedlings and do 
not come true to the parent plants. They are usually 
inferior, but in rare instances one is superior. That is 
the way new varieties are produced. 
Bulblets come true to the mother bulb, although 
even yet we sometimes see an article by someone ques¬ 
tioning this. It is only on the very rarest occasion that 
one does not come true. When one of this sort appears 
it is called a sport and is sometimes worthy of a place 
as a new variety, but not often. Out of a great many 
thousands we have found only one sport; it was from 
a Purple Glory bulblet and is very strangely marked. 
When a bulb produces two or more bulbs the result¬ 
ing bulbs are spoken of as divisions. Strictly speaking, 
there is no actual division. The old bulb does not di¬ 
vide. It is simply the growing of more than one eye. 
All bulbs are produced new each year, hence there 
is really no such thing as an old bulb, for the parent 
bulb shrivels and dies. But it is a convenient term to 
use, and if we say that one bulb is a year older than an¬ 
other, we mean that it is a year farther removed from 
the original bulblet. Of course, it is understood that we 
are speaking entirely of gladioli when we mention bulbs, 
unless they are otherwise designated. 
For commercial purposes, bulbs are grown from 
bulblets, and they are at their best the second or third 
