By the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert. 37 



There are above forty known species of Crinum, with con- 

 siderable diversity of form, stature, and colour ; and I have 

 reason to think that C. Capense will not refuse to breed with 

 any of them, as it mixes indifferently with those that have 

 spherical or columnar bulbs, reflected and radiate or more 

 companulate corollas; and if joint impressions can be con- 

 recently singled out and examined, I am enabled to state some farther particu- 

 lars concerning them. Those from pod J, Crinum brevifolio-Capense, are 

 quite uniform, and have formed no spherical bulb under ground, but have the 

 slender columnar stem of the male parent. From pod 2, the two seedlings 

 that were evidently Crinum defixo-Capense, thrive fast, as above described, and 

 have formed small bulbs, in which respect they also conform with their male 

 parent ; the third seedling, which had the semblance of a natural glaucous Cri- 

 num Capense, retains that appearance, the young bulb having split into two 

 plants (in the same manner as the young Pancratium Amboinense mentioned 

 before), but both are very weakly. From pod 3, the three first noticed seedlings 

 are vigorous, and decidedly Crinum speciosissimo-Capense, and conformably with 

 the habit of the male parent, have acquired minutely scabrous margins to their 

 leaves, and have already formed bulbs as big as a goldfinch's egg; the seedling, 

 described as bun- vigorous, apparently a natural Crinum Capense, thrives also 

 well ; but the other plants from that capsule, became like natural seedlings of 

 Crinum Capense, though they were very weak, and all died in the winter except 

 two, which are still very small and slender; it looks as if the small quantity of the 

 natural pollen which must have fallen upon the stigma, had conveyed its main 

 impression to one seed, and barely supplied to the other seeds the basis of life, 

 but not in sufficient quantity to enable them to germinate with vigour. The 

 fourth seed in the second capsule of Crinum Capense impregnated by Crinum 

 defixum, on examination this morning, proved, as I had conjectured, to be 

 empty, and furnished with no germ or embryo. I have sent it, together with a 

 natural seed of Crinum defixum to shew the proper form and position of the 

 germ, to the Society ; it appears to me that this maturation of all that part of 

 the ovula, which is necessary for the support of the embryo, without the existence 

 of the embryo plant itself, when the congenial pollen had been wanting, is an 



