Plate 208 . 
OBNITHOGALUM THYBSOIDES. 
At all the great Spring Shows this season, Messrs. Carter, 
of Holborn, have exhibited a group of fine blooms of this old 
but very much neglected flower, and as it has received the ap¬ 
probation of the various gardening periodicals, and obtained 
special certificates from the Royal Horticultural and Royal 
Botanic Societies, and is moreover a plant of a highly decora¬ 
tive character, we have considered that it would be serving the 
interests of horticulture to figure it. 
Although by some writers this variety has been called ten¬ 
der, we have the authority of Messrs. Carter for asserting it to 
be hardy, although we dare say that, like most of the spring 
flowering bulbs, it will well repay the protection and care of a 
cold pit, from thence to he brought into the greenhouse and 
conservatory, as occasion may require, or the plants arrive at 
their blooming period. The bulbs should be potted in the 
autumn in good-sized pots, and in a compost composed of sandy 
loam, with a little leaf-mould and peat, and the ordinary atten¬ 
tion required for Tulips, Hyacinths, and Hutch bulbs, will be 
sufficient for them. If they are planted out, it should be on a 
dry border, and protection should be given to them in wet and 
frosty weather during winter. But, for ourselves, we prefer, 
whenever it is practicable, to take up bulbs rather than to 
leave them in the ground, as worms are so apt to make holes 
in them, and so destroy the bulb. 
One great advantage that this variety of Ornithogalum pos¬ 
sesses is the permanence of its bloom, not merely from the 
large number of individual flowers, but from their durability, 
spikes of it continuing from three to four weeks in perfection, 
