SO On the Production of Hybrid Vegetables. 



seeds of Crinum, Nerine, and the true, or occidental Pan- 

 cratium (for those of* Europe, and TenerifFe are a distinct 

 genus, with small black seeds, like Narcissus) is like a sharp 

 skewer lying in a narrow cavity, and as it grows, the sharp 

 pointed end pierces the fleshy substance of the cotyledon, 

 and entering into the earth it deposits at its point the young 

 bulb into the ground, at some distance from the seed ; nor 

 can it be conjectured from the outward appearance, on 

 which side of the seed the sprout will issue. I have had from 

 Nerine (Amaryllis) undulata seeds even of unusual size, 

 though not always exactly of the natural form, when the 

 stigma had been deprived of all the pollen, but they never 

 vegetated; and after a certain period, they turned yellow 

 and decayed. In like manner I have been repeatedly de- 

 ceived, by imagining I had obtained hybrid seed, having 



* I do not think there would be any chance of obtaining mules between the 

 occidental Pancratiums, and those of Europe, TenerifFe, and Asia. The Euro- 

 pean sorts might perhaps breed with the Asiatic P. Triflorum. (Verecundum 

 of the Botanical Register, Plate 413) which has from twelve to thirteen small 

 round seeds in each cell of the young germen, that are probably similar to those 

 of the European kinds. It is very singular, that although that plant is abun- 

 dant, and apparently indigenous, in Bengal, it has not been known to ripen its 

 seed there. I can only account for this, by supposing it to be a native of shadj 

 hills to the North, from whence its seeds may be brought down into the meadows 

 of Bengal by the floods. I mentioned in a former communication f the diffi- 

 culty attending its culture here. I have since succeeded in flowering it with 

 certainty, by leaving the bulbs dry during part of the winter, and starting them 

 in a warm but completely shaded situation, early in the spring, when the flower 

 stems and leaves sprout together. It will not, at any period of the year, bear 

 exposure to the sun. 



f Horticultural Transactions, Vol. III. p. 190, note. 



