248 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



under the name of ambiguum, which had been received into the 

 Botanic Garden at Glasgow. It seems that this form and the 

 hybrids resembling it, more than solandriflorum itself, were after- 

 wards used in the production of the few forms with long tubed 

 flowers that were occasionally raised. 



With the view of bringing before you as vividly as possible 

 the improvement that has been effected in the Hippeastrum, I have 

 brought together as many of the original species concerned in 

 the ancestry of the race we now cultivate as could be procured 

 and brought into flower. With these are associated two or three 

 others said to be natural species, but of whose identification 

 there is some uncertainty ; and also three or four hybrids that 

 have exercised a potential influence in the production of the race 

 of Hippeastrum raised by us at Chelsea, and which form the most 

 prominent links between that race and the original species. Two 

 other elements that have contributed to the perfection of the 

 Hippeastrum have yet to be mentioned; these are pardinum and 

 Leopoldi, but as they appeared at a date so recent, and as 

 the last named has exercised a preponderating influence in the 

 production of most of the latest acquisitions, it will be best to 

 deal with them in their chronological place, and to take a rapid 

 retrospect of what was achieved with the older forms before their 

 appearance. 



Dean Herbert was the first who commenced systematically 

 and persistently the hybridisation of the Hippeastrum, and he has 

 left us an account of his early operations in the Transactions 

 of the Horticultural Society of London, and in the appendix to 

 the tenth volume of the Botanical Register, published in 1824 ; 

 his later operations are recorded in the Journal of the Society 

 for 1847. As early as 1824 he had thirty-five different crosses, 

 and there were four or five more in other collections. A coloured 

 plate of one of his hybrids, which he considered to be the best 

 in colour he had then obtained, and which he called splendidwn, 

 is given with the appendix to the Botanical Register for 1824. 

 He had raised it from vittatum crossed with Regince or equestre y 

 but, owing to a confusion in the labels, he was uncertain which. 

 Judging from the drawing, it would now scarcely attract a 

 passing glance. At that time, however, another hybrid came 

 under the notice of amateurs, on account of its brilliant colour, 

 and which was destined to attain great prominence on account of 



