502 On the Production of a Hybrid Amaryllis. 



1802. Only five or six bulbs were saved j of these, two were 

 given at the lime to Mr. Shepherd, one to a gentleman in 

 the neighbourhood, and the remainder to Mr. Lee of Ham- 

 mersmith. Mr. Shepherd's bulbs flowered in 1802, and 

 produced seed ; with their pollen, as well as with that of A. 

 Reginae, Mr. Shepherd impregnated A. vittata, and contra- 

 riwise A. Reginae with the pollen of A. vittata, and obtained 

 seeds from each operation, from which seeds plenty of bulbs 

 were raised, all of which have gone by the name of A. John- 

 soni, the London nurserymen having derived their plants 

 from the Liverpool collection." 



Doubts have been entertained of the accuracy of this ac- 

 count, as far as relates, to the impregnation of A. vittata by 

 A. formosissima, because the most skilful cultivators of the 

 present day have in vain attempted to produce a fertile seed 

 from such impregnation. It seems they will not breed to- 

 gether. A. formosissima has never been known to mature its 

 seeds in our stoves, and various attempts made (by Mr. 

 Gowen, at Highclere, and Mr. William Herbert, at 

 Spofforth) to impregnate other species by its pollen, have 

 ended in disappointment. As all the plants now in the gar- 

 dens under the name of A. Johnsoni exactly resemble Mr. 

 Gowen's hybrid, and cannot be distinguished from it, it 

 seems to follow that they are all derived from those raised in 

 the Liverpool botanic garden, between A. Reginae and A. 

 vittata, or that Johnson's bulbs were of the same breed ; 

 and that if he actually succeeded in raising a hybrid between 

 A. vittata, and A. formosissima it has been lost ; for the very 

 remarkable form of the corolla of A. formosissima could 

 hardly have failed to have had a marked influence upon that 



