This last method, and the one first described may be combined
to good advantage.

If one wishes to commence growing flowers for market, he may start with
seed, provided he can afford the time, or he may buy blooming bulbs,
either mixed or named. In the latter case he should look out for a
liberal proportion of light colors, as they are usually more salable
than darker ones, though of late, good reds are rapidly gaining in
popularity. Some growers raise mostly fine white and light varieties,
and their flowers are in demand even when the market is full of common
stock.

Finally, whatever the grower's objects may be in his work, and whatever
methods he may adopt in carrying it on, he will find plenty of room for
the exercise of his own judgment and tact, after he has read and
pondered all that he can find in print in regard to gladiolus culture.

APPENDIX

By

DR. W. VAN FLEET

CHAPTER I.

Garden History of the Gladiolus.

The gladiolus is horticulturally the most important member of the
Iridacae or great Iris family and has long been the most popular of all
summer-flowering bulbous plants, ranking in general usefulness even such
prime favorites as the dahlia, the canna and the lily. Almost one
hundred and fifty species have been from time to time described by
botanists, but only a fraction of the number has thus far proved of
value in breeding and development work. Fourteen or more species are
natives of Southern Europe and Western Asia, but these have always been
of minor importance as garden plants.

The headquarters of the genus is South Africa, centering in Cape Colony
and Natal, though there have been recent finds of value on the mountains
of tropical Africa and in Madagascar. The European and Asiatic species
run to purple and lilac in coloring, though white varieties occur in
cultivation. Flowers and plants are rather small, rendering them most
useful for pot or frame culture and for naturalizing in protected
borders where the deeply planted corns can be kept from the effects of
frost. The most attractive of these northern kinds are _G.
crispiflorus_, _G. atroviolaceus_, _G. Byzantinus_ and _G. communis_.
The latter has been offered in this country as the "hardy" gladiolus,
but it will not endure severe freezing. These species hybridize together
when opportunity presents, but do not readily interbreed with the
African kinds and have rarely developed garden forms superior to the
respective