228 
MANAGEMENT OF HYACINTHS. 
compost, in which their long fleshy roots may find sustenance 
without the trouble of ramifying their spongioles, a state quite 
unnatural to them, and only brought about by a paucity of 
aliment in the medium they are placed in ; this is easily provided 
by mixing a proportion of leaf-mould with half its quantity of 
rotten hot-bed manure and clean sharp sand. A mixture of this 
kind will furnish all that is required, and cannot be improved 
unless the texture of the mass be so light as to dry very rapidly, 
when the addition of a small proportion of turfy loam may be 
beneficial; it is not often, however, this will be found necessary. 
It is a matter of the first consequence to regulate the period of 
potting by that of the desired time when the plants shall be in 
bloom, for it is next to impossible that fine flowers should be 
borne by individuals which have only been placed in earth a 
week or two before they are subject to the action of heat; they 
cannot have provided themselves with the means of living, let 
alone those required to perfect the floral development; their 
utmost endeavours, the greatest efforts of their nature, are, 
therefore, altogether abortive, in short, they are rootless, and 
plants without roots are in a state of nullity as regards develop¬ 
ment of any kind ; but pot them early to allow time for the protru¬ 
sion of roots, and the result is very different. As a rule, those which 
are to bloom in December or January should be placed in their 
pots by the middle of September; those for February, before the 
end of October; and none later than the middle of November; 
indeed, the latter will require very cautious treatment as regards 
their introduction to heat, and it is far better to have them all 
done together at the earliest convenience. 
The mode of potting these plants being peculiar to them may 
be thus described : place a sufficiency of potsherds in the bot¬ 
tom of the pots to ensure a good drainage, four-inch pots, or 
those known as forty-eights, are the most suitable size; fill them 
quite full without pressing the soil, and then place the bulb on 
the surface, and gently force it downwards until the neck of the 
bulb is level with the rim of the pot; the earth may be pressed 
firmly round the base of the root, and a gentle watering com¬ 
pletes the operation : having thus completed the number, and 
properly labelled the whole, remove them to some sheltered spot, 
standing the pots on a thick layer of ashes, or boards, to prevent 
