126 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE 



various times, that I am generally fearful of using it. There is so 

 much variety in the vegetable black earth of different places, that it 

 should be tried cautiously. I have been told that H. calyptratum 

 has been found growing on the branches of trees, and that it has been 

 necessary to shoot off the limb by repeated discharges of a gun, in 

 order to get the bulb ; and I have seen it grown in a pot of moss. 

 The principal causes of the sickly state of Hippeastra, in cultivation, 

 are too light a soil, want of water when the leaves are pushing, and 

 too much water after. I have observed them grow with unusual 

 vigour in a split or broken pot, in consequence of better drainage. 

 The finest bulbs I ever saw were two self-sown seedlings from a cross- 

 bred plant, which established themselves in the pot where Convol- 

 vulus gangeticus was growing. They killed the Convolvulus, and at 

 last broke the pot, and have not been so vigorous since. In conse- 

 quence of its falling to pieces, it became necessary to shift them. It 

 is evident that good drainage is essential to their health. With earth 

 that sets firm, that object may be effected better by a single crock 

 placed carefully so as to cover only part of the hole, than by many, 

 of which the lowest covers the aperture, and the remainder become 

 choked by the enrth settling amongst them. I have had seedlings of 

 crosses with Vittatum, which sent up two stems of blossoms from a 

 pot scarcely twice the size of the bulb. A self-sown seedling esta- 

 blished itself in one of my stoves, and is growing freely on a stump 

 of wood, into the cavity of which a little peat had been thrown to 

 encourage the growth of a Pleurothallis ; and I do not doubt the 

 bulbs being often found on old trees, amongst the ferns, and other 

 parasites ; but I consider a well-drained rich alluvial soil to be most 

 fit for bringing them to perfection. They appear to have gone rather 

 out of favour lately with cultivators, probably from failures through 

 mismanagement, for certainly they can be surpassed by few flowers in 

 beauty, and most of them may be cultivated in a warm greenhouse, if 

 they are kept quite dry in the winter ; but it should be always re- 

 membered that very tender bulbs, which are to be kept dry in a 

 greenhouse, will rot if above ground, from the dampness of the 

 atmosphere, though they would have been uninjured if closely covered 

 i by light earth. 



" It is now pretty well understood that, although cuttings of Camellia 

 Japonica strike root readily in sand, a light and confluent soil is fatal 



