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XL. Instructions for the Treatment of the Amaryllis longi- 

 folia, as a hardy Aquatic, with some Observations on the 

 Production of Hybrid Plants, and the Treatment of the 

 Bulbs of the Genera Crinum and Amaryllis. In a Letter 

 to the Secretary. By the Hon. and Rev. William Her- 

 bert, D. C.L. F.H.S. $c. 



Read July 7, 1818. 



Dear Sir, 



Havzkg been led, by some circumstances, to suspect that 

 the bulb which is known by the name of Amaryllis longi- 

 folia, and treated in this country as a tender green-house, or 

 dry stove, plant, ( but which belongs, in fact, to the family of 

 Crinums, and should properly be called Crinum Capense) 

 was, in its native country, an aquatic plant, I determined 

 last year, to ascertain the fact by experiments. On the first 

 of July, I plunged a pot containing one of the plants, in a 

 cistern, on a flue, in the hot-house, together with some 

 Nympheas, placing the Crinum two or three inches deeper 

 than the Nympheas, in the water. At the same time I 

 plunged another in a cistern, in a cooler part of the 

 stove, near the front light. The result was such as I had 

 expected: in a very few days the plants began to shoot 

 more vigorously, and fresh young fibres to appear in the 

 water on the surface of the earth. The plants continued, 

 during the whole summer, to improve in appearance, and 

 the fibres grew out of the bottom of the pot to a considera- 

 vol. in. C c 



