94 CuUivation and treatment of Anlholyza cethiopica. 



Art. IV. On the cultivation and treatment of Aniholyza 

 celhiopica; with some remarks upon the groivlh of Cape 

 JSulbs, belonging to the natural order Iriddcea:. By A. 

 Saul, foreman in the Botanic Garden arad Nurseries of 

 A.J. Downing & Co., New burgh, N. Y. 



Sir: — On lookinc; over your review of the American edi- 

 tion of Lindley's Theory of Horticulture^ (pf'ge 25 of the 

 January nun)ber,) in the chapter on Teinperalure, in referring 

 to its influence on the successful growth of what are teclini- 

 eally called Cape bulbs, among which you class Gladiolus, 

 Amarylh'5, Hffiuianlhus, &c., to flower which in vigor &c. an 

 alternate condition of humidity and aridity is essential, you 

 seem to arrive at the conclusion that Antholyza (aeihi6i)ica, 

 you believe,) which is in your collection of green-house 

 plants, and which you have never seen bloom, and conse- 

 quently rejected as worthless, might be made to bloom by the 

 application of an extraordinary high temperature to its culture. 



As Antholyza sethiopica is an old acquaintance of mine, 

 and as I have never seen, ov founds any difficulty in blooming 

 it, treated precisely the same as /'xia, Babidna, and that class 

 of Cape bulbs, which is directly opposite to the above sug- 

 gestions, if you consider the following remaiks worthy of 

 notice, they are at your service. 



Among some other bulbs which the Messrs. Downing had 

 from the green-houses of J. W. Knevels, Esq., some two 

 or three years ago, were some of Antholyza cethiopica in pots. 

 In the month of September of that year, I shook them out 

 of their pots, &:c., when they had apparently stood several 

 years, (consequently never flowered,) and I repotted them in 

 some fresh compost, of equal proportions of peat and loam, 

 with an eighth of white sand, (more or less peat and sand, in 

 proportion to the texture of the loam;) they were then placed 

 in a cold frame, with other things of their class, with the 

 lights off day and night at first, and as they begin to grow, 

 and the nights get colder, shut up at night, and always, from a 

 superabundance of wet, watered only as they require it. In 

 this situation they are kept as late in the fall as possible, pro- 

 tected at night by mats from frosts, &c., until the season be- 

 gins to have a wintry aspect, when they are removed into a 

 cool part of the green-house, where they can have plenty of 



