CULTURE OF THE CHILIAN ALSTRCEMERIA. I7l 



I hope the above remarks will not be taken in any other sense than 

 that in which they are written ; my only object being to excite to im- 

 provement, not to condemn that which I cannot appreciate. An ardent 

 love of the subject has prompted me, and I now take leave of it, with 

 the hope that I shall not have written in vain. 



CULTURE OF THE CHILIAN ALSTRCEMERIA. 



BY A COUNTRY CURATE. 



In some recent numbers of this Magazine there are articles inserted on 

 the treatment of this charming tribe of flowers, but as the following 

 judicious observations by Mr. Van Houtte, the celebrated nurseryman 

 of Ghent, have been given in the " Gardeners' Chronicle," I have 

 transcribed them for insertion in the Cabinet, in order to promote the 

 still more general and more successful growth of this fine tribe of 

 flowers. His observations are as follows : — • 



" Nothing whatever presents more ornament to our gardens, during 

 a great portion of the year, than this beautiful production, whose 

 flowers are at once so numerous and so splendid, and yet nothing can 

 be more easy than its culture and multiplication. The thousand varied, 

 but always charming, tints, which tinge the corollas (flowers) of these 

 Alstroemerias, present a difiiculty in establishing a just horticultural 

 nomenclature for them, as, like their brilliant rivals, the Calceolarias, 

 they would defy, on that point, tiie most rigid examination. One 

 may afiirm, without exaggeration, that all are beautiful, and one may 

 also infer tliat they will soon become as popular as the Wallflower, the 

 Mignonette, the Carnation, &c. ; in fact, cut for nosegays, to grace 

 the various apartments of the house, no other flowers can be compared 

 with them. 



" The length, thickness, and number of their fascircled roots, hinder 

 them from flourishing under pot-culture ; they succeed best in the open 

 ground, in the free air, which, if subjected to the following treatment, 

 they can brave with impunity. A bed is dug about 14 inches deep, 

 in length and breadth proportioned to the number of roots required to 

 be planted, at a foot apart, from heel to heel ; the bottom of the trench 

 must be filled with rubble of potsherds, fragments of bricks, tiles, &c., 

 in order to permit a prompt and easy drainage. It is then filled with 

 a rich compost, formed of one-third fresh loam, one-third sandy bog 

 earth, and one-third spit dung, and some such strong manure as guano 

 may be added, in the proportion of one-thirtieth of the whole mass. 

 The whole is to be mixed well together, and left in heaps, about two 

 months before making use of it. 



" Each rhizome (root) is planted in the month of October, taking care 

 that its growing point is 10 inches below the surface of the soil. On 

 the frost becoming severe, the bed is covered with a framework, and 

 surrounded by mulch ; the air being abundantly admitted whenever 

 the thermometer is not below 30 degrees Fahr. We have, however, 

 known the cold to descend to 25 degrees, and the roots not to be 

 injured thereby. 



