THE AMARYLLIS AND STAR LILY FAMILY. 179 



been obtained between the older varieties and H. pardimnn 

 a beautiful creamy-yellow, fully-expanded flower, spotted or 

 speckled with vermilion. (See ' Bot. Mag.,' t. 5645.) Little 

 skill is required in crossing Hippeastrums, since nearly all the 

 hybrid and cross-bred forms are fertile, and a batch of seed- 

 lings is as diverse as Calceolarias in their colours, forms, and 



Hybrid Hippeastrums. 



markings. The numerous forms of H. bulbulosum an orange- 

 flowered Brazilian plant introduced in 1810 are very bright 

 and beautiful, " fulgidum " (light orange), " ignescens " (fiery 

 scarlet), and "refulgens" (orange scarlet) being perhaps the 

 best. It is a singular fact that even what are supposed to be 

 wild South American species vary very much from seed (even 

 when not hybridised) in cultivation, and they have doubtless 

 been intermixed in their native habitats. One of the oldest, 

 most distinct, and hardiest of all the species is " Jacob's Lily " 

 ( H. formcsissimuni), introduced before 1629, and which, accord- 



