246 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



topliyllum), those of the American Amaryllises are numerous, 

 flattened, and have a dark-coloured skin like those of a 

 Pancratium or Zephyranthes. He, however, discovered more 

 than this, for after several trials he found that the Cape 

 Belladonna would not cross with the American Amaryllises, a 

 fact that we have ourselves demonstrated experimentally. On 

 these grounds, but technically on the characters of the seeds 

 only, Herbert separated the American from the South African 

 species, retaining the Linnsean name Amaryllis for the latter, 

 which is monotypic, and founding for the former a new genus, 

 which he called Hippeastrum, or the Knight's Sfcar-Lily, 

 following the idea which suggested the name equestre for one of 

 the species. 



Herbert's new genus was not immediately accepted by the 

 most eminent systematists of his time. Dr. Lindley, during his 

 editorship of the Botanical Begister, declined to recognise it, 

 but admitted it some years later into his " Vegetable Kingdom." 

 Endlicher did not adopt it in his " Genera," published in 1841, 

 nor in the later editions. And, lastly, when we introduced pardina 

 from Peru through Pearce, and on the occasion of its first 

 flowering it was figured in the Botanical Magazine (tab. 5655), 

 Sir J. D. Hooker wrote : " The genus Hippeastrum of Herbert, 

 w T hich includes many American species of Amaryllis, differs from 

 the South African type by such very slight and variable characters 

 that it cannot be regarded as of any practical value, and I there- 

 fore follow Endlicher in regarding it, together with its allies 

 Zephyranthes, Nerine, Vallota, &c, as sections of the great and 

 widely diffused and very natural genus Amaryllis." Now Mr. 

 Shirley Hibberd, when discussing this question before the Society 

 on March 27, 1883, said : " In the Botanical Magazine it was 

 an Amaryllis (using the word in a collective sense) for a period 

 of about 30 years ; then it became a Hippeastrum for a period of 

 45 years ; but, in describing pardina, the original generic desig- 

 nation was restored by Sir Joseph Hooker, Linnaeus triumphed, 

 and Amaryllis is herself again." That triumph, however, was 

 but shortlived. At the very time Mr. Shirley Hibberd was 

 addressing these words to the Society, the final sheets of the 

 " Genera Plantarum," the greatest monument of botanical labour 

 of our time, were passing through the press, and, when the 

 concluding part was issued, it was found that Herbert's 



