222 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



attended to. When the plants have finished flowering they are 

 replaced on the shelf, and about May they are placed in a frame 

 with southern exposure, and carefully attended to until they go 

 to rest. The decayed leaves are then removed, the ashes in the 

 bottom of the frame and around the pots well damped ; the 

 sashes are shut down, and remain so until potting time in 

 August. I have tried various other methods, such as growing 

 Lachenalias in unheated houses, in frames, or in brick pits, but 

 I find the system I have now detailed to be by far the best. I 

 was led to it by observing how much better plants in baskets 

 grow, which had perforce to be so treated, than plants in pots 

 which were differently treated, and since adopting this plan they 

 have never failed. I do not wish to imply that all flower 

 equally well. Such is not the case. L. pendula, L. tricolor, L. 

 quadricolor, L.N elsoni, L. orchioides, L. Garni, and.L. glaucina 

 can always be relied on. On the other hand L. rubida, L. 

 pustulata, L. unifolia, and L. aurea are very uncertain, and 

 sometimes refuse to flower. However, L. rubida, L. unifolia, 

 and L. stolonifera, whatever this may be, have incurred much 

 ill favour, which they do not altogether deserve. Peculiar 

 irregular tortuous tubers, similar to those of Milla biflora, or to 

 the swellings on the roots of some Bomareas, have been widely 

 distributed for the bulbs of the three species named. The late 

 Eev. John Nelson, having failed to flower these tubers, handed 

 some of them over to the Eev. T. Marsh, who, also failing to 

 flower them with ordinary treatment, planted them out in deep 

 soil in front of a greenhouse, and covered them with a light. 

 Here they eventually flowered. The flowers were sent to Mr. 

 Baker, who identified them as belonging to an early form of 

 Scilla campanulata. These impostors are still extensively cul- 

 tivated for Lachenalias. 



Baising from Seed. — Almost all the species and varieties of 

 the group Eulachenalia intercross freely with each other, the 

 exception being L. pendula, and only twice have I succeeded in 

 crossing it, once with L. quadricolor, and once with a seedling 

 form. Lachenalia flowers are strongly proterandrous, the 

 anthers dehiscing before the flowers are fully open. It is there- 

 fore necessary to open the buds to remove the anthers before 

 they dehisce. The stigma is not protruded beyond the mouth 

 of the perianth for about a week after the flowers have opened, 



