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THE BULB HOUSE. 



thermometer indicated twelve degrees of frost, was a thin covering of 

 moss and dry fern laid over them. They require to be examined in spring, 

 as slugs are apt to attack them, and if not prevented or removed, would 

 soon devour them. This evil can always be easily guarded against, either 

 by watering the bed with hme water occasionally, or by picking them off 

 when they appear. 



The tubers should be planted rather deep than otherwise, wliich is both 

 a protection against excessive cbought as well as severe fi'ost. The Hon. 

 and Rev. ^yilliam Herbert found it advantageous to cover the bed in 

 spring vdth saw dust, which the slugs do not Uke to crawl over, and also 

 because it keeps the mould much moister by lessening evaporation. A top 

 covering of peat, the same learned and zealous cultivator observes, is also 

 disagreeable to slugs ; but we have not made the same obser\-ation. 



This splendid genus affords a fine field for the operation of artificial 

 fecundation, and we apprehend that many beautiful and interesting varieties 

 may yet be originated by that means. Professor Poepipg mentions hav~ 

 ing fomid A. hcemantha gro\^'ing promiscuously, of e\ery shade of Ver- 

 million, orange, yellow, sulphur, and white, which Mr. Herbert apprehends 

 to have been hybrid varieties natiu*ally originated between the vermillion 

 and wMte varieties, which are mentioned by the traveller Ruiz ; these 

 latter being growing near together, the other varieties are their united 

 offspring. I do not beUeve,'* says ]Mr. Herbert, " that we shall be able 

 to produce the same result, even by garden cidtivation and sowing the 

 seed of the vermillion plant, without first obtaining a white variety to 

 cross with the vennilliou. The known variability of the genus, however, 

 the white pelegrina and the beautiful two-coloured variety of pulchra, 

 which have been raised in England, affords a great encouragement to cul- 

 tivators." To those interested in the production of hybrids, the follow- 

 ing remark of that great and good man, I\Ir. Herbert, will be instructive. 

 " It is very remarkable, that the stigma of Alstroemeria does not come to 

 perfection till after the decay of its anthers. The stamens advance suc- 

 cessively, hke those of Nerine undulata, and like them nod before they 

 rise, the petahne filaments taking the lead, but the two upper ones not 

 simultaneously mth the lower. It results from this, that the stigma 

 must either be fertilized by the pollen of another flower, or that its own 

 scattered pollen must be efficient, after it seems dried up and lost ; in either 

 case, there is a greater pi obabihty of the intrusion of the poUen of another 

 individual, than when the stigma and anthers are mature at the same 

 time." 



" The valuation in the form and coloui' of the flower of A. pulclira^ and 



