CULTIVATIOX AX D AX ALTS IS OF PLANTS. 
Placing these plants out of doors retards or destroys the bloom, unless properly shaded, 
as the strong sun sears and turns the leaves yellow, from which they never recover; even 
in the house a thin shade is of service at midday if near the glass. We think, except in 
tropical climates, that they should not go out at all, as they can be given all the necessary 
air from open windows. 
IT \ W (' I N T If. 
YACINTHS are among the first plants to make their appearance 
out of doors in spring, and gladden the earth with their bright 
bloom. In preparing a bed or box for the bulbs, special care should 
be exercised, as their fleshy substance renders them an easy prey to 
ase, and subjects them to the attacks of rats, mice and other enemies. 
The best soil for them is a very sandy loam well mixed with good leaf- 
mold and old cow-manure. They should he set in rows, a few inches 
each way, and then covered three or four inches deep with the soil. A 
idful of sand placed under each bulb will help to prevent decay. The sea- 
of planting is from the middle of October to the same time in November, 
thev have ceased to bloom, and their leaves have decayed or died down 
to the surface, the bulbs should be taken up and placed in some shady spot to 
drv, when they should be stored away in an airy situation until again required foi plant¬ 
ing-. These plants are also adapted to pot culture, and can be grown singly, or tw 
to or 
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fig 
three of different colors, in a crock fiv^i or six inches wide. A piece of broken ciockeiy 
or the like is placed over the hole for drainage; a little old cow-manure is laid thereon, 
and then the pot is tilled, within an inch of the top, with the soil above indicated as best 
for Hyacinths. Finally the bulb is placed in the soil, with about one-half uncovered. 
The usual treatment for bulbous plants, as already given under Crocus, is then followed. 
Hyacinths can be grown in.sand, and also in water. In sand they are placed in a proper 
receptacle and set away as above, the sand being kept merely moist. When the rootlets 
have got a good start, the leaves will begin to appear, showing that it is time to bring 
them forward to the light. In regular Hyacinth glasses there is generally a rim or shal¬ 
low cup for the bulb to rest in. The glass is then filled with rainwater so as almost to 
touch the base of the bulb. The water should be kept pure by inserting a piece ot char¬ 
coal and by being changed weeklv. The glasses should be put away for about a month 
in some cool dark place, when they will have rooted sufficiently to be brought forward 
into the light to finish growth. The single-flowered varieties are the best for glass cul¬ 
ture. Hyacinths that have flowered in pots or glasses arc afterward fit only for planting 
in beds or borders. The Hollanders make a specialty ot raising Hyacinth bulbs, and have 
produced and named two thousand distinct varieties, which they supply in immense quan¬ 
tities to the markets of the world. Tt may be imagined how gorgeous an appearance is 
often presented in the Netherlands bv a twenty-acre lot, or more, wholly planted in Hya¬ 
cinths; and the fragrance is said to have been noticed fifty miles at sea. 
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