POLYA'NT IES TUBERO'SA, or the Tuberose (a corruption of Plants Tubdrcuse), is a tuberous-rooted plant highly prized for the delicious fragrance of its flowers, on which account it is cultivated in the wanner parts of both the old and new world. It is stated to be an Indian plant introduced into England in 1620; it had however been cultivated in Europe a century earlier. It is more probably of South American origin ; as a wild tuberose, l'olyanthes gmeilie, hiss been found in South Brazil, which is probably the origin of the garden plant.
The tuberose is too tender a plant to be cultivated in England in the open air; but iu the south of Europe it finds a climate suitable to it ; and the Genoese supply the principal part of the European market with tubers for forcing. The latter are imported Into this country by the Italian oilmen, who sell them, with orange-trees, Narcissus roots, end similar product. of the south.
In selecting tuberoses for planting, the largest tubers should be pre ferred, as the smaller ones will often not flower. All offsets should be
carefully picked off, so as to concentrate the vegetation in a single eye. They should be planted in March or April, in pots, In a sandy learn, and forced in a hotbed, with as much bottom heat as is given to n melon. The eye should be about an inch below the surface of time soil. Very little water should be given till the plants are growing ; but when once in a state of they may be supplied copiously. An abundance of light and air should be given the plants as soon as they begin to grow, and this should be sedulously attended to as long as they remain in the hotbed ; it will however soon be necessary, on account of their height, to remove them to the greenhouse, where they must be placed near the glass, and their roote still exposed to a temperature /similar to that from which they were taken. As soon as they show their flowers, but not sooner, they may be removed to the sitting-room, when their flowering will be completed.