136 



ON AMARYLLIDS. 



looked on it as a total failure as soon as I perceived the falling 

 off of those flowers that were dusted with their own pollen, had 

 I not been aware that a similar circumstance was quite familiar 

 to Dean Herbert in Hippeastrum — a family next door to Cyr- 

 tanthus. He said he could cause any Hippeastrum to cast its 

 seed-pods that were fertilised by its own pollen, by introducing 

 the pollen of a neighbouring species to the rest of the umbel, 

 and yet I have failed in many instances to prove this freak in all 

 the Hippeastrums that I cultivate. But that there should be no 

 room for mistake, I requested Dr. Lindley to take charge of one 

 of the seed-pods, and see that the seedlings from it should be 

 properly attended to, in case that I should meet with some un- 

 foreseen accident or bad luck in nursing the rest. The seeds 

 began to sprout in the three pods which I kept before the pods 

 bursted, so that we are sure of their vitality.* Three flowers of 

 the Vallota purpurea were dusted with the pollen of Cyrtanthus 

 obliquus at the same time, but, before the week was out, this 

 experiment was sealed, at least for this season ; and I mention it 

 merely to u show cause" why I do not follow out such experi- 

 ments of this nature as are sometimes recommended, as some wise 

 people think that gardeners in large places can do anything, and 

 especially be able to carry out their own hobbies. Our case is 

 often the reverse of this. 



A correspondent to the i Gardener's Chronicle,' who signed 

 himself "Mucklewell," very kindly sent me some of his Vallota 

 pollen for this experiment, for which I feel very much obliged 

 to him, and also to Mr. Leach, Clapham Park, for pollen of his 

 three beautiful Brunsvigias which he exhibited before the Society 

 last autumn. I dusted a score of flowers of the Amaryllis Bella- 

 donna with the pollen of the Brunsvigias, and as many with 

 their own pollen, but the whole refused to seed ; it was pro- 

 bably too late in the season for them to seed, being the very end 

 of September, and they were in the open border. 



* [The seeds here alluded to have grown, -and have produced about a 

 dozen young plants, with long, linear, somewhat glaucous, blunt, curved, 

 deep-green leaves. But at present no opinion can be formed of what they 

 will eventually become. The curvature and slight bloom may possibly be 

 derived from the oblique Cyrtanth {Cyrtanthus obliquus), but the habit is 

 more that of a Vallote.] 



