AMARYLLIS. 



14 



AMELANCHIER. 



san-Han-Tsi), are so employed in 

 China. 



Amart'llis. — A maryllidacece. — 

 Bulbous plants, cliiefly natives of the 

 Cape of G-ood Hope and South Ame- 

 rica ; but -which have been increased 

 in number tenfold by hybrids and 

 varieties raised in England. All the 

 kinds are eminently ornamental, and 

 they are all of easy culture ; the great 

 secret being to give them alternately 

 a season of excitement and a season 

 of repose. To do this effectually, the 

 plants should be abundantly supplied 

 "with water and heat, and placed near 

 the glass, when they are coming into 

 flower, and water should be withheld 

 from them by degrees, when they have 

 done flowering, till they have entirely 

 ceased growing ; when they should be 

 kept quite dry, and in a state of rest. 

 When in this state, they may be placed 

 in any obscure part of a stove or green- 

 house where it is dry, and of a tem- 

 perature not under forty or fifty 

 degrees. If kept in such a situation 

 during winter, some kinds may be 

 turned out into a warm border in 

 spring, where they will flower; and if 

 the season be fine, they will renew 

 their bulbs in time to be taken up 

 before the approach of frost. The 

 chief value of these jjlants, however, 

 is, to produce flowers in the winter 

 season, which they readily do if they 

 are kept dry and donnant during the 

 latter part of the summer and 

 autumn. Indeed, by having a large 

 stock of these bulbs, a regular suc- 

 cession of flowers might be procured 

 during every month in the year. 

 "When the dormantbulbs are intended 

 to be thrown into flower, they should 

 be fresh-potted in sandy loam and 

 leaf-mould, and put into a stove or 

 hotbed, the heat beginning at fifty 

 degrees, and ascending to sixty or 

 seventy degrees; and when the leaves 

 appear, they should be supplied abim- 

 dantly with water. "Where seeds are 



I wanted, the watering must be con- 

 j tinned, though somewhat less abun- 

 j dantly, after the flowers have faded, 

 ! till the seeds are ripe ; and when these 

 are gathered, they ought to be sown 

 immediately in light sandy loam, and 

 placed in a frame, or near the glass in 

 a moist part of the hothouse. If the 

 young plants are potted off as soon as 

 they are an inch or two in height, and 

 shifted frequently in the course of the 

 growing season, they \,il\ attain a 

 flowering size in from fifteen to twenty 

 months. The pots in which these 

 and all other bulbs are gi'own, ought 

 to be thoroughly drained by a handful 

 or more of potsherds (broken pots) 

 laid in the bottom of each pot, and 

 covered with turfy peat ; and the 

 mould used should also be turfy, in 

 order the more freely to admit the 

 passage of water. The Belladonna 

 Lily {A. Belladonna) flowers most 

 splendidly in the open air in Devon- 

 shire, where the bulbs are planted in 

 rows, close together, so as to allow the 

 fibrous roots to form a mass, which is 

 never disturbed. 



Amberbo'a Dec. — Compositce. — 

 Sweet or Yellow Sultan. — Well- 

 known half-hardy annuals, natives 

 of Persia, formerly included in the 

 genus Centaurea ; the seeds of which 

 may be sown in a hotbed in February, 

 and the young plants transplanted to 

 the open border in April or May. 



Ambro'sia, — Compositce. — 

 Weedy annual plants of no beauty, 

 which, though found among the 

 annuals in some of the old seed 

 catalogues, are now scarcely ever 

 grown, except in botanic gardens. 



Amela'nchieb. — Eosdcece. — De- 

 ciduous shrubs or low trees, with 

 showy white flowers, which appear in 

 AprU. A. vulgaris and A. Botrya- 

 -piu'in, the Snowy Alespilus (formerly 

 called Mespilus canadensis), are very 

 desirable species for shrubberies. 

 They are commonly propagated by 



