32 On the Production of Hybrid Vegetables. 



bulbs. The flower stem was unfortunately broken off by an 

 accident before the capsule appeared to be quite ripe ; and 

 on opening it three bulbs were taken out by Lord Mi i.ton's 

 Botanic Gardener, Mr. Cooper, who supposed them to be 

 seeds not perfectly mature, and laid them ( as I had generally 

 advised him to do with Crinum and Pancratium seeds) on 

 the surface of the mould in the pot of the parent plant. I 

 regret exceedingly not having had the opportunity of open- 

 ing the capsule myself, but Mr. Cooper, on whose accuracy 

 and intelligence I have found every reason to depend, as- 

 serted positively, that there was no other body in the seed 

 vessel (for I suspected that the bulbs must have been at- 

 tached to withered seeds, that had sprouted prematurely in 

 the capsule), and that the three bulbs were placed exactly 

 in the usual manner of seeds, for which he had mistaken 

 them. Lying in my stove upon the earth, they soon struck 

 fibres into it, as a common Hyacinth bulb would have done; 

 and after some time, a young leaf sprouted out from the 

 centre. The only peculiarity in which these little bulbs dif- 

 fered from offsets was, that the two outer coats were split on 

 one side ; I pulled off the outer coat of one of them, without 

 injuring it, and it has sprouted since; and (which is very 

 remarkable,) another of them, before it sprouted, produced 

 within the outer coat, which shrivelled, an offset as big as 

 itself; or rather, it divided itself into two twin bulbs of equal 

 size, as old bulbous roots often do. 



The annexed figures represent the young bulbs above 

 described. I. is the bulb as first taken from the capsule. 

 2. the same after it had vegetated, the outer coat having 



