ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE AMARYLLIS SARNIENSIS. 293 



1822, was placed in a stove as soon as its blossoms had withered, in a 

 high temperature, and damp atmosphere. It was planted in very rich 

 compost, and was amply supplied with water, which held manure in solu- 

 tion. Thus circumstanced, the bulb, which was placed in the front of a 

 curvilinear-roofed stove, emitted much luxuriant foliage, which continued 

 in a perfectly healthy state till spring. Water was then given in smaller 

 and gradually reduced quantities till the month of May, when the pot in 

 which it grew was removed into the open air. In the beginning of 

 August the plant flowered strongly, and produced several onsets. These, 

 with the exception of one ,were removed ; and the plant, being treated pre- 

 cisely as in the preceding season, flowered again in August 1824. In the 

 autumn of that year it was again transferred to the stove, and subjected 

 to the same treatment; and in the latter end of the last summer, both 

 bulbs flowered in the same pot with more than ordinary strength, the one 

 flower-stem supporting eighteen, and the other nineteen large blossoms. 

 One of these flowered in the beginning of August, when its blossoms were 

 exposed to the sun and air during the day, and protected by a covering 

 of glass during the night, by which mode of treatment I hoped to obtain 

 seeds; but the experiment was not successful. The blossoms of the 

 other bulb appeared in the latter end of August, and were placed in the 

 same situation in the stove which the bulb had occupied in the preceding 

 winter ; and I by these means obtained three apparently perfect seeds. 

 One of these, the smallest, and seemingly the least perfect, was placed 

 immediately in a pot in the stove, where it has already produced a plant. 

 The old bulbs have been again placed in the stove, where they have 

 emitted abundant foliage, and where I do not doubt they will again 

 generate blossoms. 



In the foregoing experiments, I conceive myself to have succeeded 

 in occasioning the same bulbs to afford blossoms in three successive sea- 

 sons ; by having first caused the production of a large quantity of true 

 sap, and subsequently, by the gradual abstraction of moisture, having 

 caused that sap to become inspissated, and in consequence adapted to 

 the production of blossom-buds. Some gardeners entertain an opinion 

 that bulbs may be excited to produce blossom-buds by being kept very 

 dry, after their leaves have withered : but I believe this opinion to be 

 wholly unfounded, and that the blossoms are always generated whilst 

 the living foliage remains attached to the bulb. 



I have made nearly similar experiments upon some fibrous-rooted 

 plants, without the aid of artificial heat, with similar, and, to me, with 

 more interesting results, an account of which I shall reserve for a future 

 communication. 



