2 Mr. Haworth's new Arrangement 



The species in my section Parvijlorcc have small unhandsome 

 flowers : those of A. reticulata, indeed, may be excepted, which are 

 pretty, and of a rosy-white colour, spangling to the sun ; not very 

 distantly resembling those of Hyacinthus orientalis. The pearly 

 and odd-constructed forms, however, so frequently found in this 

 division, abundantly compensate for theirtrifling blossoms. Their 

 beauties are equal to others which are always in bloom. 



Bradley, speaking of them in his Diclionarium Botanicum, says, 

 " I don't know of any tribe of plants which afford a more plea- 

 sing variety than these, for the odd shape of their leaves and 

 manner of spotting, and being some of them covered as it were 

 with pearls." 



Yet in spite of all these attractive recommendations and enco- 

 mia, the whole genus, from a chain of occurrences very difficult 

 to account for, has never been properly investigated or cherished, 

 either by the botanists or horticulturists of our times ; conse- 

 quently, the numerous species which compose it are but little cul- 

 tivated, and still less understood. 



The probable reasons of this arc, first, a somewhat natural pro- 

 pensity in several of the species to vary ; and secondly, a predo- 

 minant, but I believe an erroneous, idea, that few of them are, 

 truly and originally distinct ; but fluctuating and inconstant if 

 raised from seed. 



This belief, so far as concerns two species, as likely as any 

 others to vary from seed, I can practically contradict ; having my- 

 self raised A. margaritifcra minima and A. Lingua august ijblia from 

 seed of my own saving, and found no variation whatever from the 

 mother plants. A cause exists, of greater weight, in my opinion, 

 than both the above mentioned, which prevents the botanist, 

 unless he is likewise an horticulturist, from acquiring a compe- 

 tent knowledge of Aloes, and of all other succulent plants : I 



mean 



