Deservedly a favorite as this flower is, it is seldom successfully cultivated in the north, both from want of proper care and from the shortness of our season of warmth. I have been very successful in flowering it, having had at one time ninety-six spikes in one bed, early in September. As some of your readers may be willing to take the same trouble for the sake of such a splendid show, I will describe the plan I pursued. About the 15th of April the bed should be laid out, four feet wide. This will give room for six bulbs in the cross row, at eight inches Apart The rows should be twelve inches from each other, and the bed made long enough to receive the required number of bulbs. Dig out all the earth to the depth of two feet, keeping the sides perpendicular. Be certain that the bottom is well drained, so that no water can stand in it Fill the bed with hot dung, or, what is better, dung and leaves mixed, treading it down until within four inches of the surface. On this put eight inches of a compost of one-third good garden loam, one-third coarse sand, one-sixth rotted hot-bed manure, and one-sixth leaf mold. The bulbs should be large, plump, and entirely stripped of offsets.

Make the holes four inches deep, and put a little white sand in each, so that the top of the bulb shall be an inch below the surface of the bed, and cover them, making the bed smooth. Place on the bed crosswise about four inches of straw, with poles laid lengthwise to secure it against wind. In about a fortnight examine the bed, and when the bulbs have started about two inches, take off the straw and put down some crotches at the sides of the bed to support cross poles on which to place a covering of mats or old carpets at about six inches from the surface of the bed. Remove this every mild day, putting it on at night, until all danger of frost is past Then place slender sticks, painted green, to each bulb, to tie the flower-stems to. Water plentifully in dry weather.