276 MerherCs Amaryllidacecc. 



the plants are not yet in a condition to prove the identity of tlie 

 cross, I have yet every reason to believe it a real one. The 

 parents being previously in a high state of cultivation, I antici- 

 pate an enlargement in the inflorescence, with a fine glow of 

 pale orange colour, and an improvement in the foliage of the 

 offspriufj-. This anticipation does not tally with Mr. Herbert's 

 account of his success in raising camelHas ; yet I cannot per- 

 ceive how any mode of management can affect the offspring, sub- 

 sequent to the impregnation : but I may be in error, and speak 

 under correction. Again, tube-shaped flowers, natives of warm 

 climates, having an excess of sweet secretions surrounding the 

 germen, will not generally yield seed in a damp atmosphere, 

 such as is kept up in well-regulated plant stoves. If they are 

 removed into a dry atmosphere, and the tube of the flower be 

 slit up with the point of a pin, to let the nectar or accumulated 

 moisture run off, they will be found to produce seeds, other circurii- 

 stances being favourable. In some cases, the whole of the petals 

 and stamens may be removed without much injury ; and in others 

 it is absolutely necessary to go to this extremity. Some do not 

 ripen the pollen for many days after the expansion of the corolla; 

 but others have it ripe before the flower opens ; and some have 

 the pollen ripe when the flower is merely in the bud. if I may use 

 the term : Lechenault/« is an instance of the latter. This little 

 favourite has a small round cup on the top of the stigma, which 

 botanists call indusium. This cup is wide open in the earliest 

 sta<i-e of the flower : the anthers, as if anxious to conceal their 

 treasure from the eye of the hybridiser, bend over the sides of 

 this little cup, and discharge the pollen into it; the stigma 

 beo-ins to lengthen out ; the cup collapses round the hidden 

 treasure ; and, by the time the flower is ready to expand, all 

 traces of the stamens and anthers are gone ; and, if you open 

 the indusium with the point of a knife, you will see the pollen 

 at the bottom of the cup. I shall now leave you to conjecture 

 the cause of this mystery ; first giving you an opinion of my 

 own; viz. that all flowers bearing fertile stigmas will be found 

 ultimately to produce seeds by undergoing some previous mani- 

 pulaiion by the cultivator. Some experimentalists are satisfied 

 that all is right when they extract the immature pollen, and 

 apply that of a kindred sort; but this is the simplest part of the 

 whole process, and might be taught to a child in two minutes. 

 The power of modifying certain peculiarities in plants, in order 

 to obtain seeds from them, is not sufficiently known yet ; but it 

 has not been overlooked by our author, who advances many 

 excellent suggestions on the point: but we must look forward, 

 for abundance of accumulated facts, before we shall be enabled 

 to lay down rules for future guidance on this part of our 

 business. I have exhausted my ingenuity in endeavouring to 



