Al'KIL 2, 189O.] 



Garden and Forest. 



165 



Carderi, like the Godwinia, but smaller ; Arisama speciosum, 

 large examples ; and A. pracoxj a large specimen of Tacca 

 artocarpifolia, with Mowers on stalks eight feet high, and the 

 subject of much interest and speculation, most people being 

 unacquainted with it; Strelitzia Nicolai, the flower-spike bear- 

 ing its large, strangely formed, white and blue flowers ; Bu- 

 phane toxicaria, the poison-bulb of the Kaffirs, bearing a head 

 of flowers a foot across, and suggesting some of the Hseman- 

 thi ; AZchmea glomerata, whose large, stout spike of blue 

 flowers, springing from compact, cushion-like clusters of scar- 

 let bracts, is both handsome and singular; Brow tie a Ariza, a 

 fine head of rosy red flowers; Rondeletia amcena, a handsome 

 stove shrub, with large, oblong leaves and compact terminal 

 bunches of pale flesh-colored flowers. 



A double-stemmed plant of the new and delightful little 



now a most successful breeder and grower of these plants, 

 many of his seedlings being almost, if not quite, equal to the 

 best hitherto raised. The majority, however, of the very best 

 among garden Hippeastrums we owe to the skill of Messrs. 

 Veitch, of Chelsea, who have raised an enormous number of 

 kinds since they commenced operations with these plants, 

 twenty-three years ago. In a paper read by Mr. H. Veitch on 

 Tuesday last, at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 the subject of Hippeastrums and their culture was treated in 

 a most interesting and instructive manner. An exhibit of 

 plants in flower, representing the species, first hybrids and 

 the choicest of the seedlings raised from them, formed a per- 

 fect object-lesson, and showed much better than any words 

 could how great an improvement had been made in the flow- 

 ers by breeding. As an illustration of what can be done by 



30. — Syringa Pekinensis, — See page 164. 



Phcenix Rcebelini was exhibited, and received, as it deserved, a 

 first-class certificate. 



Hybrid Hippeastrums. — The magnificent garden race of 

 Hippeastrums which we now possess is the result of nearly a 

 century's careful breeding and selecting from such of the spe- 

 cies as possessed the qualities necessary in a good breeder. 

 According to Herbert, the first hybrid Amaryllid that appeared 

 in our gardens was the mule between H. vittatnm and H. re- 

 giitm, which was raised by a nurseryman named Johnson in 1810 

 and named Johnsoni. In the following year Herbert himself 

 raised several hybrids, and in his "Amaryllidaceae," published 

 in 1837, he enumerates thirty-one hybrid Hippeastrums which 

 had been raised in England. His observations on this genus and 

 his success in breeding from the species were no doubt the 

 cause of the work being taken up by the late M. Louis Van 

 Houtte, of Ghent, and by the elder De Graaf, both of whom 

 raised many hybrids and crosses. De Graaf the younger is 



means of hybridizing and selecting to alter and improve the 

 character offiowers so as to bring them up to the florist's stan- 

 dard of excellence, the exhibit and paper by Mr. Veitch were 

 simply perfection. From the form, substance and color of the 

 progenitors, such as H. Leopoldii and//! cquistris, to those of 

 some of the latest of Messrs. Veitch's seedlings, such as that call- 

 ed Champion, is a really marvelous advance to have achieved. 

 Champion has a shallow tube of great substance, the segments 

 each four inches wide, the whole flower measuring eleven 

 inches in diameter. Its color is rich crimson-scarlet, with a 

 velvety sheen and a small star of green at the base of the tube. 

 The species first employed as breeders by Messrs. Veitch 

 were H. pardinum and H. Leopoldii, both introduced by them- 

 selves from Peru. The result of this cross did not prove sat- 

 isfactory, neither did a cross between the last named and //. 

 aulicum. When a mule was crossed again with one of its par- 

 ents, the offspring were, as a rule, almost identical with the 



