THE HIPPEASTRUM ( AMARYLLIS). 



247 



Hippeastrum had been retained, and not that only, but also the 

 other genera separated by him from Amaryllis are established 

 nearly as he left them. Thus the Dean has finally triumphed, 

 for the question is settled for our lifetime at least. Nevertheless, 

 the name Amaryllis is so closely, if not indissolubly, associated 

 with these plants in horticultural nomenclature, that its separa- 

 tion from them is not likely to be popularly effected for some 

 time to come, but in deference to our botanical friends the correct 

 name Hippeastrum is used in this paper. 



The present race of Hippeastrum has for its ancestry various 

 wild forms or species, some of which were introduced to 

 cultivation more than a century ago. Among the first of these 

 were equestre and Begince from the West Indies and Central 

 America, from which were derived the rich red and crimson tints 

 of some of the earlier hybrids ; vittatum from the same region, 

 whose influence may still be occasionally seen in the longitudinal 

 bands of colour more or less distinctly traced on the segments of 

 'several, even of the latest seedlings ; reticulatum, a smaller- 

 flowered species from Brazil, well marked by the crimson 

 veinings and reticulations of its segments, and by its white 

 striped foliage, characters which it has imparted to some of the 

 beautiful autumn-flowering hybrids of which we have still too 

 few. Many years later came psittacimim, also of Brazilian origin, 

 a species with larger flowers than the preceding, and among 

 whose most obvious features are the green centre and deep 

 crimson veinings confined chiefly to the apical half of the 

 segments ; and about the same time aulicum, of robust habit and 

 bright scarlet flowers, was sent from the Organ Mountains by 

 Mr. William Harrison, the discoverer and introducer of many 

 fine Brazilian Orchids. The species I have named were 

 certainly the chief ingredients of the ancestry of the earliest pro- 

 genies of Hippeastrum, and it is highly probable that others were 

 also used, but their influence has long since disappeared from 

 the existing race, and they may therefore be passed over in 

 silence. One remarkable species must not be overlooked, on 

 account of its long tube-like flowers of greenish white, reminding 

 one of the long tubular Lilies of Japan and the Philippine 

 Islands ; this is solandriflorum. Herbert obtained mules from this 

 and regio-vittatum, which greatly resembled the remarkable 

 form figured in the Botanical Magazine for 1837, tab. 3542, 



