24 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



show their full beauty. Like all other plants they are easily cul- 

 tivated when one knows what they require. The secret is in 

 properly drying off the bulbs after flowering. They cannot be 

 prevented from flowering. Mr. Hovey had had bulbs packed in 

 boxes which sent out leaves and flower buds. He would urge 

 amateurs to procure good bulbs, and put them now in a tempera- 

 ture of from 60° to 65°, and then remove them to a colder house, 

 as they come into bloom. They should be potted from month to 

 month, so as to have a succession of bloom. Later, about June 1, 

 they may be planted in the open ground. After blooming the 

 flower stems should be cut off, then the plants should be watered 

 until the}"^ show signs of ceasing to grow, and then dried off 

 gradually. 



Edward S. Rand, Jr., thought they could not be grown as a 

 bedding plant, our season being too short to perfect the bulb for 

 flowering another year. 



Mr. Hovey had had a large bed of seedlings which he had 

 treated as before stated. He would lift the bulbs, shake off the 

 soil, and place in boxes. Planted June 1, they would flower in 

 July, and have until October to perfect their bulbs. He said that 

 the late Joseph Breck's experience had been the same as his. 



Mr. Rand replied that the amaryllis, unlike the Japan lily, 

 formed the flower for the next year within the bulb, as could be 

 seen by cutting open the bulb, and that the foliage required to be 

 ripened more than that of almost any other bulb. 



Benjamin G. Smith agreed with Mr. Hovey in regard to ripen- 

 ing, and said that his experience in out-door cultivation was 

 similar to Mr. Hovey's. 



Mr. Hovey said that Mr. Van Houtte, at his extensive nurseries 

 at Ghent, Belgium, cultivates the amaryllis entirely in the open 

 air. It was only latterly that he (Mr. Hovey) had had enough 

 bulbs to plant in the open ground. There were many plants 

 which, when first introduced, were supposed to be tender, because 

 too rare and valuable to be risked out doors, but which, as soon as 

 an opportunity of testing was afforded, were found to be compara- 

 tively hardy. The tree pjEony as well as the aniar3^11is, was an 

 example of this. His seedling bulbs, when planted out last year, 

 were not larger than crocus bulbs ; now the}' are as large as those 

 of A. formosissima. Mr. Ha\'ey mentioned another fine plant of 

 this family, Imantopliyllum miniatum, of which a remarkably well- 



