Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 185 



summer-planting is adopted, he prefers runners of the pre- 

 ceding year, or plants which have borne a crop of fruit. 



23. On the Cultivation of the Amaryllis Sarniensis, or Guernsey 

 Lily. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F.R.S. &c. Read De- 

 cember 20. 1825. 



In preceding volumes of the Horticultural Society's Trans- 

 actions, there are one or two papers by Mr. Knight on the 

 Guernsey Lily ; and he " should think the matter of the pre- 

 sent communication scarcely worth sending to the Horticul- 

 tural Society, if" he "were not perfectly confident that the 

 same mode of culture is applicable to bulbous roots of every 

 kind which do not flower freely." 



" The gardener possesses many means of making trees produce blossoms; 

 by ringing, by ligatures, and by depressing their branches ; and the increas- 

 ing thickness of the bark of these necessarily obstructs the course of the 

 descending fluid, and thus tends to render them productive of blossoms. 

 But none of these mechanical means can be made to operate upon the 

 habits of bulbous-rooted plants." 



Mr. K. inferred, that in the culture of these, he should best 

 succeed by adopting such measures as would first occasion 

 the generation of much true sap, and subsequently promote 

 such chemical changes in that, as would cause it to generate 

 blossoms ; and under these impressions, he made, amongst 

 others, the following experiments, the result of which, in 

 every respect, answered his expectations and wishes. 



" A bulb of the Guernsey lily, which had flowered in the autumn of 

 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 solution. Thus 

 circumstanced, the bulb, which was placed in the front of a curvilinear- 

 roofed stove, emitted much luxuriant foliage, which continued in a per- 

 fectly healthy state till spring. Water was then given in smaller and 

 gradually reduced quantities till the month of May, when the potjn which 

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

 plant flowered strongly, and produced several off-sets. These, with the 

 exception of one, were removed ; and the plant, being treated precisely 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 summer (1825.), both bulbs flowered 

 in the same pot with more than ordinary strength, the one flower-stem sup- 

 porting eighteen, and the other nineteen large blossoms." 



" In the foregoing experiments, I conceive myself to have succeeded in 

 occasioning the same bulbs to afford blossoms in three successive seasons ; 

 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 have become inspissated, and in consequence adapted to the produc- 

 tion of blossom buds. Some gardeners entertain an opinion that bulbs 

 may be excited to produce blossom buds by being kept very dry, after their 



