274 LUTHER BURBANK 



the summer, there was seldom any seed, and it 

 was with difficulty that I succeeded in raising 

 seven or eight seedlings. 



In a more recent year, however, I succeeded 

 in hybridizing many blossoms of Sprekelia with 

 the pollen of one of the improved hybrid Hippe- 

 astrum, and secured about 800 seedlings which 

 showed the characteristics of the other hybrids 

 obtained by the reciprocal cross of the same 

 species. The second generation hybrids, and 

 also those of the third generation, showed a 

 strong tendency to revert back to the giant 

 hybrid species of amaryllis, rather than toward 

 natural species. 



The bulbous plants of the genus Crinum ap- 

 pear to be somewhat closely related to the Hip- 

 peastrums. There are two species known as 

 Crinum Moorei and C. longiftora that grow in 

 northern California, and there are other species, 

 some of which are tender evergreens. 



I have grown about twenty species, some of 

 them of tropical origin. Numerous crosses were 

 made among these species until I had a cross- 

 bred strain of Crinums of ancestry as complex 

 as that of the Hippeastrums. The seed parent 

 of a larger proportion of the hybrids was the 

 species known as Crinum americanum, but a 

 few were grown from the seed of C. amabilis 



