September, ign 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
171 
The flowers are much like the crocus, 
varying in color; some are white, some 
pink and others checkered lilac, purple 
or white 
In October the blossoms die down, leaving no 
trace of the plant. There would be no time for 
seed to ripen, and, by a curious provision of na¬ 
ture, these are buried all winter within the bulb. 
In spring a fruit stalk with lily-like leaves ap¬ 
pears. This makes a rapid growth and the seeds 
ripen about the first of June, after which the 
plant again dies down to be resurrected in Sep¬ 
tember in the pretty, lavender and white flowers. 
In form the blossoms are like the crocus; in 
color they vary; some are white, some a pale 
rosy pink or pinkish lavender, and others are 
curiously tessellated or checkered lilac-purple 
and white. Each bulb will produce a number of 
flowers, often six or eight in succession. The 
bulbs are so determined to blossom that if taken 
up just before blooming and placed in pots or 
baskets of moss, they will go on flowering as if 
nothing unusual had occurred, and will even 
produce flowers if the bulbs are not planted at 
all. The single forms are more commonly culti¬ 
vated, but there are very pretty double varieties. 
One plant which produces double flowers has 
(Continued on page 191) 
A double form was found to bloom, 
somewhat later than the single varie¬ 
ties. Its first blossoms were purple, 
but the later ones were white 
A Combination Hotbed and Storage Pit 
AN INGENIOUS CONSTRUCTION WHICH PERMITS THE HOTBED TO BE USED FOR 
COLDFRAME, STORAGE PIT AND EVEN AS A BROODER FOR SPRING BROILERS 
by Richard Maxwell Winans 
W HEN we built the combination bed and pit shown in the ac¬ 
companying drawings, we found that while our original 
intention had been considerably more than met in the design, later 
developments demonstrated that supplemental uses were of even 
greater practical value. 
The plan was conceived in an emergency as an expedient to 
save a valuable lot of large plants of various tender vegetables 
which, because of an unusually backward spring, were being 
crowded to death in the limited confines of the hot-house. That 
emergency was a blessing in disguise, since it has enabled us to 
so greatly profit by the resulting invention. 
Our first frame was built to accommodate tomato plants in 
bloom, together with 
eggplant, pepp e r, 
muskmelon and cu¬ 
cumber plants ready 
for the field. When 
the weather permitted 
their removal to the 
open there was no 
further use for the 
bed and a suitable 
number of plants of 
each were left in the 
bed, where they were 
forced to fruit days 
in advance of those 
transplanted to the 
field. After that we 
constructed an extra 
run of this bed for 
the purpose of fruiting such vegetables under glass, and we have 
yet to record a single failure. 
As our experience with this frame progressed we found it ad¬ 
mirably adapted to other uses. Aside from serving the purpose of 
a cold frame, in which lettuce, radishes, spinach, young onions, 
etc., may be grown in late fall and early spring, it is a forcing 
bed par excellence for growing and fruiting such plants as toma¬ 
toes, eggplant, cucumbers, etc., far in advance of those grown in 
open culture. And as a true hotbed it seemed so much better than 
the ordinary “single-run” bed that we at once abandoned the 
old type. 
The main advantage for all of these purposes is the increased 
amount of air space, 
the possibility of se¬ 
curing a freer circu¬ 
lation in ventilation 
during the day and 
the confinement of 
a greater volume 
of heated air during 
the night, together 
with the advantage- 
of the ample head- 
room of a small hot¬ 
house, in which la¬ 
borers may carry on- 
the work of trans¬ 
planting, weeding, 
etc., during the- 
roughest weather, 
having the sashs 
