244 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



botanical information on this most interesting class of plants I 

 cannot do better than refer you to the " Classification of the 

 Species of Hippeastrum," by Mr. J. G. Baker, in the Journal 

 of Botany for 1878, page 79, and to a " Lecture on the 

 Amaryllis," given before the Royal Horticultural Society on 

 March 27, 1883, by Mr. Shirley Hibberd, the substance of 

 which was published in the Gardeners' Chronicle of March 31 

 following. But on the very threshold of the subject that is to 

 occupy our attention to-day I am met by a question of nomen- 

 clature that cannot be ignored. Are we wrong in continuing to 

 call these grand flowers after the name of the Virgilian nymph, 

 and should we therefore drop the pleasing appellative with which 

 they have been almost indissolubly connected from our earliest 

 memory, and substitute the rougher Hippeastrum for the softer 

 Amaryllis ? I do not propose to travel over ground already 

 familiar to many of you further than is necessary for the sake 

 of clearness, but it does seem desirable that the question should 

 be impartially considered from a horticultural standpoint, with 

 a view of setting at rest some uncertainty still prevailing on the 

 subject. 



The following short retrospect will, I trust, bring the matter 

 clearly before you. Linnaeus selected the name of the Virgilian 

 nymph Amaryllis — 



Tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra, 

 Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida s vivas — 



for the lovely South African Belladonna Lily ; and when, sub- 

 sequently, bulbs from the West Indies and South America were 

 brought to Europe, and were found to produce flowers closely 

 resembling in form that of the Cape Belladonna, they were 

 brought under the same genus. It is interesting, nay useful, to 

 look back sometimes into the distant past, both of science and 

 horticulture, if we wish to measure the strides that have been 

 made in both up to our own times. The Amaryllis affords a 

 striking example of what has been done. Not only were many 

 species now referred to Hippeastrum figured and described by 

 the older botanists as Amaryllises, but also a number of others 

 since separated under various generic designations as Vallota, 

 Griffinia, Sprekelia, Lycoris, &c. These were all called Amaryllis 

 pretty much after the same manner as all epiphytal Orchids were 

 called Epidendrums in the days of our great-grandfathers. 



