THE HIPPEASTRUM. 



259 



When the bulbs are dug up in the autumn, all of them large 

 enough to flower are planted in pots, the smaller ones being 

 again planted out in the unheated frames. They flower in April, 

 May, and June, but isolated bulbs produce flowers all through 

 the season." 



Messrs. Kelway grow twenty thousand bulbs in this way. 



I may just add that I am quite well aware of the great work 

 carried on now for many years in the nurseries of Messrs. James 

 Yeitch & Sons, Chelsea ; but as their Mr. Harry J. Veitch has 

 also prepared a paper on this subject, it will be best to leave it 

 entirely in his hands. As a cultivator of these plants, and a 

 raiser of seedlings, I may claim to be successful, and will 

 shortly describe the system of management we have pursued 

 for many years. 



First, as to propagation. This is effected by seeds, and by 

 offsets from the roots. Some varieties are much more difficult 

 to hybridise than others. For instance, I have tried year after 

 year to obtain seeds from the variety John Heal, and have 

 managed to get three seeds in as many years. On the other 

 hand, the very handsome variety Empress of India has pro- 

 duced 700 seeds from one flower-scape composed of five flowers. 

 This is an exceptionally free-seeding variety, and has been the 

 parent of many good garden forms. The structure of the 

 flowers is such that anyone may be able to hybridise them. 

 The seeds are usually ripe in August, and should be sown im- 

 mediately. They soon germinate in a nice bottom heat, and in 

 the course of a month or six weeks after the plants appear above 

 ground they may be pricked out in boxes or flower-pots. I 

 plant ten or a dozen plants in a 6-inch pot. The plants grow 

 freely to the end of the season, nor do they cease growth all the 

 winter. We keep them rather dry at the roots, and repot again 

 about the first week in February — this time three plants in a 

 5 or 6 inch pot, and this will be space enough for them to grow 

 in all through the season ; and if they have been well cared for 

 they will each have produced bulbs about the size of a bantam's 

 egg. Next season these bulbs must be repotted singly, and after 

 another season's growth will be all strong flowering bulbs. Cul- 

 ture of offsets is as simple as the raising of seedlings. There is 

 but one time that offsets may be removed from the parent plant, 

 and that is when the old bulbs are repotted in January. We 



