CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
crock gives them sufficient drainage, and the heat it draws from the air furnishes 
all the warmth required. When raised from seed, the long spur attached should he cut 
off, as it is likely to work the seed out of the ground. 
Most of the Geraniums have strong-scented foliage, and are quite free from insects. 
The Rose Geranium, with its lemon-scented leaves, is, however, an exception, as the aphis 
or green-fly considers its green shoots a dainty hit. The Apple, Nutmeg and Pennyroyal 
Geraniums are grown for their fragrant leaves, and are well adapted for hanging-baskets, 
but are better for pot culture. 
Geraniums require a rich, loamy soil. To have them bloom in winter, they must not 
he allowed to bloom during summer, and should be kept with a scanty supply of water. 
In early fall repot and trim back well, give more water, and occasionally liquid manure, 
and the branches will probably give flowers by December. 
ESERVEDLY among the most popular of bulbous plants, the 
^ Gladiolus will always repay, by its abundance of flowers, for the 
care and attention bestowed upon it. In modern times it has been 
d extensively hybridized that the varieties now number several hun- 
dreds, and are in a fair way of being swelled to thousands. By this 
^ process, however, they have been made less hardy, and the new speci- 
mens require more careful handling than the old. All the varieties will grow in 
| ^ almost any soil, the richer earth, however, in every instance producing the better 
V flowers. The spot selected should be enriched with good manure, which should 
( be thoroughly incorporated with the soil. The bulbs should be planted three to 
>• six inches deep, according to size (bulblets only one inch), and four to six inches 
or more apart, and abundantly watered in dry weather. Supports should be furnished 
each plant, if in a windy situation, to keep the flower-stalks upright. However small 
the collection, it will be found most agreeable to have a number of varieties, as by this 
means a pleasing continuity in the times of blooming is most readily insured. Other 
plants may be grown in the same beds, provided they are a low-growing kind, as for 
instance the Mignonette; the shade or protection afforded by the leaves of such seems 
to be beneficial to the bulbs during the process of growth; and they also help to 
relieve the scarcity of foliage in the slim, gaunt Gladiolus. As window or house 
plants they are scarcely desirable, requiring too much root-room, and not possessing 
any compensating peculiarities of foliage or even of flower. They propagate themselves 
by forming new bulbs upon the older ones, and a number of bulblets under the new 
bulb. These bulblets should be planted in beds by themselves, as they have to he 
grown from two to four years before flowering. They should not be planted, however, 
until they have been kept eighteen months, as if started sooner very few of them will 
grow. The bulblets invariably produce the same variety as the parent. When the 
flower-stalks are dead, or after the first light frost, the bulbs should be lifted, and such as 
