170 
TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 21, 1858. 
light, on purpose to raise a discussion,—a honest, fair 
opposition to my assertion, which was founded on that 
experiment. 
The subject could not have taken a better turn. One of 
our readers applied to his nurseryman for the bulb, at my 
price. It could not be had for four times the sum. He 
tried another, and a third ; but it was all the same tune. 
They could not “ do ” it at the price. That fact got 
abroad all over the kingdom, and no one seemed to see 
his way to a right understanding of my price—at least, 
no one came forward to say he could sell it so cheap; 
therefore, I conclude no one had taken the Experimental 
Garden way of treating the bulb. 
The way by which I arrived at that conclusion, was, 
of itself, an experiment on the trade worth five pounds in 
the books. But I shall not push for the money until it is 
clearly and unanimously acknowledged by the trade, and 
by the public, that the experiment was worth three times 
the sum. 
Well, then, my experiment on the bulb goes to prove, 
that every one who has grown Tritonia aurea in this 
country, or on the Continent, or in America, has done so 
in a way which is diametrically opposed to its natural 
way of growth ; and it also proves, that our own culti¬ 
vators are the best gardeners under the sun. In no other 
country could this very beautiful bulb have lasted seven 
years, without becoming extinct, under the treatment. 
But I must say, that I never saw but one healthy plant 
of it in bloom till I saw my own, and that one was in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society the year before last. 
I much question if there are three gardeners in the 
kingdom who have seen it one half so good as that plant 
Was ; but that plant itself may be excelled in the hands 
of any one who can grow an Ixia or Sparaxis, by going 
the right way to work. It is only fair, however, to state 
the fact, that I should be just as likely to fail with these 
pretty little bulbs as the rest of us, if I had begun their 
cultivation with flowering bulbs, or at the time it first 
came out. That its cultivation had been hitherto a dead 
failure, is sure enough—at least, within twenty miles of 
London; otherwise, we should see it at all the September 
shows, if not in July ; but September is its natural time 
to begin flowering in our climate, and it blooms freely till 
Christmas. They have it now nearly over, by the score, 
at the Experimental Garden, and no Lcelia cinnaharina, 
or any yellow in the whole race of Orchids, is more rich 
than it has been during these dull months. The old 
Golden Lotus Chrysanthemum, which I mentioned last 
week, from Mr. Salter, has, perhaps, the richest tint in 
that race; and when its natural cast of incurving the 
florets is assisted to perfection, in the hands of the 
dressers, perhaps no Chrysanthemum was ever seen so 
beautiful as it then appears ; but compare it to the 
Golden Tritonia, in bloom at the same time, and the 
Golden Lotus will be a mere foil to it. Such is the rich¬ 
ness of this most extraordinary bulb when properly 
grown ; and that it is fully as extraordinary as that, may 
be imagined, when I say that no other bulb in Africa, or 
in all the world,—as far as we know,—is like it in natural 
habit. Can any one of our readers tell the exact locality 
where it was found in Africa? Like Sida grandijlora, 
which only inhabits the margins of a few muddy hollows 
on the top of Table Mountain, the extent of its locality 
must be very limited. I think Masson found it on a 
“ nor’-west ” journey, considerably to the left of Dr. 
Livingstone’s route from Cape Town to Coloberg, a tract 
of country which has been little botanised since; for 
several of Masson’s bulbs have not been sent home from 
his day to this. How is it, that of all the mountains of 
the globe, Sida grandijlora could only exist on the top of 
one, at the extreme limits of the old world ? But Sida 
is not a true bulb, though very like one above the surface j 
and Tritonia aurea is not only a true and perfect bulb, 
but one of a family, the most numerous in South Africa; 
and yet it differs from them all, as widely as the poles are 
asunder; hence, my authority for calling it a most ex¬ 
traordinary thing. 
All Ixias, and Ixia-like bulbs, in cultivation, grow, with 
us, from the middle, or end, of September, to the end of 
May, or thereabouts, and rest for the summer season,— 
except one, and that one is Tritonia aurea, which is an 
evergreen bulb, and grows all the year round ! Yes, it 
grows ail the year round, and is an evergreen as 
surely as the common Laurel is ! No wonder, therefore, 
that we never saw it in good health, three months run¬ 
ning ; but very extraordinary that it did not slip through 
our fingers altogether before now ; and more extraordi¬ 
nary still, that it did not sell at one half-guinea the root, 
instead of threepence, or fourpence, which, I believe, is 
the price I put on it. But, if I can show that it may be 
grown and sold for profit, at one penny the bulb, surely 
“ Geeenhand,” will not grudge to pay over that little 
balance between us. As for the trade, I know their 
liberality, and I assure them, that the heaviest of the 
Dutch shall never be able to compete with the British, 
in bringing down the price of this bulb to the level of my 
price, because the frost is so much more destructive to it 
in Holland, than in England. 
Even in our climate it will not increase so fast as the 
call for it will ruD, without the protection of a cold frame. 
But a two-light box of it,—say, five feet by eight feet,— 
planted with flowering bulbs, at four, five, or six inches 
apart each way, would produce a thousand bulbs in two 
years, if not double that number. The glass is to be 
wholly off, every day and night in the whole year, except 
during frost; but the frost must not nip the smallest leaf 
of it. It makes less roots than any other Ixia-like bulb ; 
yet, I believe, it requires more water in summer than 
any of its race. I also believe, that for the roots to be dry 
for two hours together is all but fatal to the increase of 
new bulbs : when it is in bloom, it needs just double the 
quantity of water requisite at any other time, and that is 
what no other bulb in cultivation can bear with impunity. 
Is it not, therefore, a very extraordinary thing ? 
But by far the most extraordinary part of the story, 
revealed by our experiments, remains to be told. It has 
actually the habit of a Easpberry bush ; and if our Easp- 
berries were evergreens, some people could see very little 
difference between the two plants, except size. The canes 
of last season would remain green during the winter, and 
would keep green till the flower and fruit were over, 
and a vigorous progeny were up as high, and as green 
as themselves, to succeed them. Would you not wonder 
to hear of an evergreen Easpberry bush, in a pot, sup¬ 
posing such a thing to be common, being turned over on 
its side, in an orchard-house, and remaining dry for three 
or four months every year ? I know I should ; but I can 
conceive a state of root to the Easpberry bush, which 
would enable it to endure even that hardship, and yet 
be able to push up a few more canes to keep the pot 
going, though not enough to part and give away, or sell, 
for love or money. That state of root this Tritonia has, 
in an eminent degree ; and if it had not, it would have 
been many a degree from our shores by this time. 
Erom the first day I saw this bulb in bloom, I had a 
great desire to fathom the reason why it looked so bad 
with the best growers in the country. At last, two years 
back, a Fellow of the Horticultural Society sent me a 
large packet of seeds of it—the very thing I wanted. 
Erom this, I afterwards learned that it was by means of 
seeds and seedlings that the plant was kept in cultivation, 
and not by offset bulbs, like others of the Ixia tribe. The 
seeds were divided into two portions, and sown in two 
large pots, just this time two years since, or a little 
earlier. They were kept from the frost, and no more, 
nothing being more injurious to any plant of that race than 
artificial heat, or stimulus. The seeds did not sprout till 
the following March; but they were examined ten times 
during the interval, in order to watch and study the 
plants from their very birth. By the end of May the 
