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LXXIX. On the Production of a Hybrid Amaryllis. In a 

 Letter to the Secretary. By James Robe rt Gowei\ t , Esq. 

 F. H. S. 



Read August 7, 1821. 



Dear Sih, 



I hasten to comply with your request to be furnished with 

 the history of the splendid Hybrid Amaryllis Regina-vittata, 

 which, by Lord Carnarvon's desire, I sent to the Horticul- 

 tural Society a few days ago. It was raised by me in his 

 Lordship's garden in the summer of 1818, from seeds of 

 Amaryllis vittata, which I had carefully impregnated by the 

 pollen of Amaryllis Reginae. As the operation had long been 

 premeditated, the two bulbs were by proper management 

 brought to expand their flowers on or about the same 

 day, and such minute attention was paid to the extirpation 

 of the anthers of the A. vittata, previously to the expansion 

 of the corolla, and development of the pollen, that self im- 

 pregnation became wholly impossible. The pods swelled well, 

 and forty one perfect seeds were produced ; which all grew. 

 In the course of a few months, when the leaves of the young 

 plants began to assume some breadth, a distinction was re- 

 marked between them and the leaves of seedlings of A. vittata 

 of about the same age, sufficiently decided to enable both the 

 gardener and myself to distinguish between them at a glance. 

 The mule leaves were of a deeper and more glossy green, 

 and were covered with a slight glaucous bloom, which quickly 



