4 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of merit, however, in connection with the season of flowering two 

 very important facts were noted. The earliest flowers that appeared 

 were of good quality, hut those of the mid-season were better. But 

 as the later kinds came into bloom we obtained an exhibition of the 

 merest rubbish, and the later the sort the worse was its quality. 

 Then, as the case stands at present, late-flowering hyacinths appear 

 to be altogether undesirable. 



Perhaps a few words should be said as to the cultivation of these 

 charming flowers in Holland. The soil in which they are grown 

 for market is sheer sand or blackish sandy peat, often of such a loose 

 nature that the workmen attach flat boards to their boots to prevent 

 their feet sinking into it. And so liable is the sand to be blown 

 away that it is a common practice to scatter hyacinth flowers over 

 vacant plots, for no man likes to see his estate fly through the air 

 and settle within another man's boundaries. The land is usually 

 prepared by dressing it heavily with manure from the cowsheds, and 

 for this an almost fabulous price is paid. The land being ready and 

 loaded with manure is planted with potatoes, and this crop being 

 removed it is ready for planting with hyacinths. When a crop of 

 hyacinths has been taken the land is planted with tulips, and the 

 next crop may be tulips again or crocuses. Then the land is once 

 more refreshed with a heavy dressing of cow manure and the rotation 

 is repeated, beginning with potatoes. 



The hyacinth takes us to the east, its home being the mysterious 

 country known as the Levant. The amaryllis takes us to the west, 

 the species that are most prized in our gardens being natives of the 

 New World. But the examples of so-called amaryllis that have 

 delighted us to-day are not amaryllis, but members of a genus called 

 Hippeastrum, or equestrian star, one of the species being striped in 

 a way to suggest the name. But our brethren the florists have 

 never called them by Dean Herbert's name, and in this matter I 

 shall stand by the florists, for the people who have to use a language 

 should have some part in making and keeping it. It is only a case 

 of conservative reaction and indicates the unchangeable inborn 

 gallantry of the florists in preferring a heroine of Theocritus and 

 Yirgil to a fancy of a serious Churchman. But the classification of 

 Dean Herbert has a sound scientific basis, and the hippeastrums 



