158 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 



vians, in honor of which they hold every year a kind of 

 religions ceremony, in which holy images are strangely 

 mixed up with scenes of dancing and feasting. On the 

 24.th of June the inhabitants of Lima sally forth, on 

 horseback, in carriages and on foot, and, passing through 

 the Almeda, or common promenade, they proceed to 

 some hills about two miles from the city, which, though 

 usually bare of vegetation, are then yellow with the flow- 

 ers of the Amancaes. On the sandy or volcanic soil of 

 these hills innumerable booths are erected ; and here the 

 visitors take refreshment, after walking to and fro, and 

 decorating themselves and their horses with the flowers 

 of the Amancaes. The amusements of the day consist 

 principally of music and dancing, and these are strangely 

 mixed up with religious ceremonies. In the evening 

 the crowds return to the city, so laden with flowers as to 

 look, in the light of the setting sun, like a stream of 

 molten gold. The other Peruvian Daffodil is H. cala- 

 tMnum, a very handsome species from Buenos Ayres, 

 which has large, pure white, delightfully fragrant flow- 

 ers. Its culture is the same as the foregoing, but it is a 

 more vigorous plant, and will grow in other than sand, 

 which the first named species will not. It makes a 

 charming pot plant. 



HYPOXIS. 



Star Grass. 



A small genus of tuberous-rooted plants widely dis- 

 seminated, and differing considerably in character. The 

 only species worthy of cultivation is H. erecta, our com- 

 mon Star-grass, which is a beautiful little plant indige- 

 nous from the Atlantic to the Great Plains, and south- 

 ward. Its flowers are bright yellow with brownish stripe 

 on the outside of the petals, and though they are small, 

 yet from their great abundance and the length of time 

 they continue, they are worthy a place in every garden. 



