Plate 344. 

 ITIPPEASTRUM PARDINUM. 



Tliere are few flowers in th(> early part of the year more 

 valuable for tlieir brilliant effect, or more easily managed, than 

 the various kinds of Amaryllis and Ilippeastrum; rcujuiring- only 

 (he temperature of an intermediate house to bring them to 

 perfection, — throwing up fine noble-looking spikes of bloom, 

 witli sometimi's four or five blooms, they ought surely to have 

 a more prominent position assigned to them than they have 

 hitherto had. The Belgian and French nurserymen grow them 

 in considerable numbers, and have, by careful hybridizing, ori- 

 ginated many fine varieties ; while latterly, ^lessrs. Vcitcli, of 

 Chelsea, and Mr. Garraway, of Bristol, have exhibited some 

 beautiful kinds, but whether of their own raising or of foreign 

 origin we cannot say. 



A remarkable addition to the species of this genus has been 

 exhibited during the present spring by the Messrs. Veitch and 

 Sons, of Chelsea ; that which we now figure, Hippeastnmi par- 

 <h')nnn, one of the many fine things which have been sent over to 

 them by their indefatigable and most successful collector, Mr. 

 Pearce, who found it in Pern. 



The size of the blooms is considerable, averaging from six 

 to seven inches in diameter, while the form of the flowers is 

 very peculiar, unlike any otlier species, being quite spreading 

 and open, more like some of the species of Cactus or Cereus, 

 and thus, instead of hiding its beauties, displaying the mIioIc 

 interior surface. The marking of the flower is also very 

 jjeculiar, not striped and dashed, as many of the Amaryllids 

 are, but spotted all over Avith small dots, dark crimson-red in 

 colour, on a cream-coloured ground, and even at the edges of tlie 

 |)etals, where tlic ci'luisoii more pri-vails, (he spotting also exists. 



