56 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



growers who had spoken heretofore on the subject. He does not 

 let them dry up, but waters continuously, and thinks his seedlings 

 flower sooner under this treatment. He believes they can be cul- 

 tivated out-doors. If inclined to dry up, he lets them. He keeps 

 his old bulbs growing all the time, and they increase in size. 



Mr. Hovey thought that amaryllis bulbs had been injured by 

 taking out of the pot. Unlike those of other bulbs, the roots are 

 fleshy ; the bulbs should be put in a box with earth over them, and 

 the box placed on the ground ; if placed on a board, they will be 

 injured by drying, but not if covered with earth. The case is the 

 same with caladiums. In Belgium the amaryllis succeeds out- 

 doors with a few leaves over them in winter. They can be 

 planted out in a warm border. 



Mr. Putnam had one amarjdlis which he kept in a pot three 

 years, and it remained dormant without shrivelling. He planted 

 it out-doors and it grew. 



Mr. Hovey said that John Richardson, of Dorchester, had a 

 bulb for twenty j^ears without flowering. It was a striped-leafed 

 variet3'^ of A. reticulata, an autumn flowering kind. He gave it to 

 Mr. Hove}^, and soon after it threw up a flower stem. It had been 

 kept too warm. 



Mr. Hovey went on to speak of geraniums and pelargoniums, 

 especially the zonale class, which is one of much interest, and one 

 to which much attention is paid in Europe. Mr. Gra}^ has one 

 hundred varieties. Mr. Hovey had himself raised some from seed, 

 and he mentioned the subject now to induce cultivators to raise 

 seedlings. Mr. Denn}'^, one of the most extensive English culti- 

 vators, has brought out six or seven kinds ; he has a large house 

 which he fills with seedlings every year. Mr. Hovey exhibited a 

 seedling of his own, selected as one of the best out of two hundred. 

 He hoped we should originate fine varieties hereafter and not be 

 dependent upon English and German cultivators. Both Colonel 

 Wilder and himself had done something for the pelargonium. 



H. W. Fuller, chairman of the Garden Committee, said he had 

 lately visited the greenhouse of William Gray, Jr., where he saw 

 a great number of geraniums in bloom, producing a charming and 

 brilliant effect. One variety, the Bride, of great purity and 

 beauty, attracted immediate attention, and the E. S. Dodwell, 

 Master Ohristine, Polly King, Madame Werle, Mons. Eugene Buen- 



