CULTIVATION OF BRUNSVIGIA JOSEPHlNiE. 273 



5 feet high; pods long, somewhat curved, and slig-litly flattened, 

 containing 7 to 8 large peas of very sugary quality, indented, and 

 of a bluish colour when dry. An abundant bearer, highly de- 

 servins: of cultivation. 



XXXII. — On the Cidtivation of Brunsvigia JosephincB. ^y 

 Charles Leach, King's Road, Claphani Park. 



(Communicated September 4, along with a beautiful exhibition of Brunsvigia 

 Josephinaj and other Cape bulbs, for which a Banksian Medal was 

 awarded.) 



In sending to-day two or three specimens of Brunsvigia Jose- 

 phinse, it may perhaps further the objects of the Society if I 

 accompany them with a short description of the treatment by 

 which I have now, for three or four years, succeeded in blooming 

 them. 



In March, 1844, I received three fine bulbs, among various 

 others, of Brunsvigia Josephinse from the Cape. They were at 

 once potted in good fresh turfy loam, and in a month the leaves 

 appeared. They did not, however, grow finely ; and in No- 

 vember, beginning to turn yellow, water was withlield, but 

 resumed in December, new leaves again showing themselves. 

 The pots were also plunged in water for a few hours, to ensure 

 the ball of earth being fully saturated ; the top mould was also 

 taken off, and replaced with leaf-mould. During the winter 

 they were kept in a warm green-house, in a temperature often 

 down as low as 35°, and making leaf well. In May they were 

 placed in a pit, kept dry, and exposed to the sun, the lights being 

 kept closed. In the September ensuing one of the bulbs flowered, 

 and, the treatment being precisely similar, another flowered in 

 1846. The first again flowered in 1847, and the second in 1848, 

 appearing thus to require a year to recover their exhausted 

 strength. This year forms, however, an exception, all three 

 being now in flower, one of which is that now exhibited ; and 

 although at first the largest bulb, and always producing the 

 finest foliage, is blooming only for the first time. 



I cut the flower-stems always off as soon as the last flower 

 begins to wither, in order that strength may not be exhausted 

 in perfecting seed, and I then place tlie pots out of doors, and 

 keep them tiiere as late into the autumn as possible, and until 

 the leaves are grown so long as to make them liable to injury 

 from strong winds or heavy rain. 



I have only further to add that the three bulbs have never 

 been re-potted since I first planted them, but that liquid manure 

 is occasionally given them when the leaves are approaching 



