248 ON THE CULTIVATION OF AL$TKOMEKIAS. 



the Society's large silver medal was awarded for them, we trust a 

 description of his mode of treating them may not be unacceptable 

 to our readers. "When I first came to Bury Hill," he says, " to 

 April, 1831, I found several varieties in small pots of the size 

 generally termed sixties, which were suffering from being kept 

 too moist, and Alstromeria tricolor or FlosMartinia, and pulchella 

 or Simsii, were planted in the border in front of the stove. Being 

 very partial to the genus, although I had never seen any of the 

 varieties before, except ligtu and peregrina, I began immediately 

 to turn my attention towards them. Being well aware, from what 

 I had seen of the two kinds with which I was acquainted, that 

 they require rest for a few months in the course of the season, I 

 removed all the plants I could find, (which, as well as I can re- 

 collect, were Hookeri, pulchella, pallida, peregrina, acutifolia, 

 peregrina alba, psittacina, cdulis, ligtu, and a variety from Mr. 

 Nuttall, raised by him from Peruvian seeds, and which had never 

 iiowered here,) to a small pit in front of the pine stove, giving 

 them no water till the earth about their roots got quite dry ; as 

 soon as they began to recover, I potted them in the size called 

 forty-eights, and kept them on a shelf against the back wall of the 

 greenhouse, about three feet from the top lights ; and although I 

 lost hookeri, peregrina alba, and edidis, I had the satisfaction of 

 seeing the others thrive much better than they had done the 

 previous year. I also took up from the border in front of the 

 stove, tricolor and pulchella, and gave them the same treatment. 

 When the leaves began to decay, at the end of July or beginning 

 of August, I withheld water, and allowed the plants to rest till the 

 beginning of November, 1832, when they again began to vege- 

 tate: I then repotted them, and gave them every encouragement, 

 in rich mould composed of loam, rotten dung, and leaf mould, 

 with a little sand ; this I find to be the best compost for growing 

 them in. As they filled their pots with roots I shifted them pro- 

 gressively to a larger size : and had in June, 1833, the pleasure of 

 flowering the species from Mr. Nuttall and pallida, for the first 

 time since they had been at Bury Hill; and I succeeded in grow- 

 ing tricolor to the height of two feet three inches, well covered 

 with flowers : none of my pots that season were larger than what 

 are termed sixteens. When the flowering was over and the 

 leaves beginning to decay, I then resorted to the plan of drying, 

 ^lor resting, the plants till the following November ; I afterwards 

 pave them the same course of treatment as before : but as the 



