ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



XI. — On Hybridization amongst Vegetables. By the Hon. and 

 Very Rev. William Herbert, LL.D., F.H.S., Dean of Man- 

 chester. Part the Second. 



(Communicated Oct., 1846.) 



I have mentioned that different species of Zephyranthes did 

 not intermix willingly, but seedlings of Z. tubispatha by Z. 

 carinata flowered at Spofforth, which produced no seed, and have 

 been lost since. One was raised from Z. sessilis var. Guatima- 

 lensis by carinata, which has borne seed and fertilized var. vere- 

 cunda. The dust of H. concolor and other species of Zephyr- 

 anthes and Habranthus, and of Sprekelia formosissima and cin- 

 nabarina, has been very frequently applied to Hippeastrum, but 

 always in vain. Hippeastrum, however, both here and in Ame- 

 rica, has willingly produced seedlings by the curious plant 

 figured as Sprekelia cybister, and supposed by me to form a 

 second section of Sprekelia, differing in the relative length of its 

 several stamens and in the Hippeastrum -like breadth of its 

 leaves. Professor Lindley was therefore right in looking upon 

 it as an anomalous Hippeastrum ; and I think it gives reason to 

 believe that Sprekelia is rather a very strongly marked section 

 of Hippeastrum approximating to H. aulicum than a genus 

 originally distinct; in which case the question would be yet 

 open, whether, under very favourable circumstances, a cross 

 might not be still obtained, for no Sprekelia seems willing to 

 bear seed in our climate and under our cultivation. 



The genus Crinum goes round the belt of the world not ex- 

 ceeding a certain distance from the equator. A portion of it 

 was originally included in the genus Amaryllis, being supposed 

 to conform with the Belladonna lily, on which it was founded. 

 The greater part of that portion breed as willingly with those 

 within the old Linnaean limitation of Crinum as with each 

 other ; but those from the west coast of Africa (although one of 

 them, C. spectabile, is naturalized in Brazil) usually fail to breed 

 with any other species. One of them, however, C. Broussonet- 

 ianum, comes so near to the East Indian species, that Mr. Ker 

 united it with them as a variety under the name Amaryllis 

 ornata. I raised after repeated failures one seedling from C. 

 Capense by pollen of C. spectabile, as I believe, but I lost the 

 plant when two years old, before I could feel certain of its cor- 

 rectness. Here is one of the unintelligible freaks of nature ; 



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