368 Oti the Treatment of the Iridacecz. 



The antholyzas require a sandy peat soil, and the bulbs should 

 not be crowded into a small sized pot, but should have plenty of 

 room, if the object is good flowers. A number four pot is full 

 small enough for a fine sized flowering bulb: the offsetts can be 

 placed in a smaller pot, several in each. Pot in October, and 

 place in a shady situation until the latter part of the month, when 

 they will need removing into the green-house. They produce 

 their flowers in January and February, and a few pots, mixed in 

 with other plants in the green-house, have a fine effect, towering 

 up, and, with their scarlet blossoms, adding a brilliancy to the 

 other plants. After they have done blooming turn the pots out 

 of doors, (unless cold,) upon their sides, and they will need no 

 water or other care all the summer. We flowered the prealta 

 in great beauty last year, and the bulbs have already made new 

 shoots four inches long, without repotting. 



Tritbnia. — Upwards of twenty species, but only one of which 

 we have ever cultivated, or seen in flower elsewhere. For the 

 most part they possess but little beauty, and are not sought after. 



T. crocata. — Known in our gardens as the /'xia crocata, and 

 quite common; it is a very splendid plant, and no collection should 

 be without it: it flowers in the months of March and April, and 

 its large saffi'on colored flowers, on rather slender stems, have a 

 beautiful appearance, from their procumbent habit. 



T. zanthospila. — This species has white flowers with yellow 

 spots, and is said to be handsome, though we have never seen it. 



The species are cultivated in sandy peat and loam, putting two 

 or three bulbs in a number two pot, and about four bulbs in a 

 number three pot; keep them in a shady cool place for a short 

 time after they are potted, which should be early in October, af- 

 terwards removing them to the green-house; when in flower give 

 them liberal supphes of water, which should gradually be with- 

 held as the fohage assumes a yellow and decaying tinge. Set 

 the pots away, in the summer, in a dry place, where the bulbs 

 may remain until the season of planting, in October. 



Hesperdntha. — A genus with which we are less acquainted 

 than either of the others; we received several bulbs, as species 

 of this genus, but they have all, we believe, proved to be ixias 

 or tritonias. When we named this genus, in our previous pa- 

 per, we thought that we then possessed two or three species. 

 The bulbs require nearly the same treatment as the ixias; they 

 should be planted in October, in sandy peat and loam, and treat- 

 ed precisely the same as ixias. 



