250 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



afterwards by the late Louis Van Houtte of Ghent, and by other 

 Belgian and also by French horticulturists, " who raised seed- 

 lings in considerable numbers, and by careful hybridising 

 originated many fine varieties." Some of Van Houtte's best 

 acquisitions were figured from time to time in the Flore des Serves, 

 They were brilliant in colour, and surpassed in that respect 

 the general host of varieties cultivated at that time ; but they 

 are all characterised by narrow acuminate segments scarcely 

 broad enough to exclude the daylight from behind. Van Houtte's 

 best forms were afterwards surpassed by the acquisitions of the 

 elder De Graaff of Leyden, to whom we are indebted for the 

 form that bears his name, and which was one of the parents 

 of Empress of India, raised by his sons, the present well-known 

 cultivators of the Hippeastrum — a variety that afterwards became 

 an important factor in the production of some of our best types. 

 Both Graveanum and Empress of India are in the collection ex- 

 hibited by us to-day. In our own country many meritorious 

 forms have been raised by Mr. R. S. Holford of Westonbirt, 

 Mr. Baker, formerly gardener at Coombe Warren, Messrs. Hen- 

 derson, the late Rev. Thomas Staniforth, an ardent admirer of 

 the Hippeastrum; and by the late Mr. Speed of Chatsworth. 



I have now arrived at another turning-point in the history of 

 the Hippeastrum ; this was the discovery of pardinum and 

 Leopoldi by our collector Pearce on the Andes of Peru, and their 

 introduction by us into European gardens. Placing these side by 

 side with the older species, it will be readily seen that as regards 

 the shape of the flowers and the length of their tube, a series 

 may be found of which the half-closed, long-tubed solandriflorum 

 occupies one extreme, and the open, almost tubeless Leopoldi 

 the other. Between these extremes the other species partici- 

 pating in the parentage of our present race of Hippeastrum may 

 be arranged accordingly. Up to the time of the introduction of 

 Leopoldi most of even the best forms obtained by hybridisation 

 were characterised by more or less narrow and acuminate seg- 

 ments, of which the lowermost was almost invariably imperfect, 

 or, at best, unsymmetrical with the others ; by a longer or 

 shorter tube, which they had inherited from their wild ancestors ; 

 and by the green central rays so conspicuous in equestre, 

 psittacinum, aulicum, and others. The introduction of Leopoldi 

 and pardinum therefore afforded an opportunity of exceptional 



