86 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SOMETHING ABOUT HIPPEASTRUMS. 

 By Dr. E. Bonavia, F.R.H.S. 



When I took up the cultivation of Hippeastrums in this country some 

 six or seven years ago, I procured a number of bulbs from Luc know, 

 Holland, France, and England. "When they flowered I gave them names, 

 and crossed them promiscuously in order to get quantity. They were 

 all more or less of the varieties we see at shows, but of course not so 

 select. 



The object of getting bulbs from these different countries was the 

 hope of some new variation turning up from these different strains, but 

 so far those that have flowered have been somewhat disappointing, as 

 nothing startling has yet appeared, though some have been very fine. I 

 have over two thousand seedlings of all ages. A number of the first 

 crosses have flowered. I kept a record of their parentage, and of their 

 form and colour, &c, but many of the tickets, being of wood, bave been 

 lost. 



However, I have up to date a record of 114 of my own seedlings, and 

 1 give herewith a list of them. As I knew the names of their parents I 

 could easily note the likeness to either parent, or to both, or otherwise, 

 and also wrote a short description of each as it came into flower. Those 

 of which I had lost the tickets are of course left out of the reckoning. 



For the sake of brevity, I shall call the seed parent the "mother," and 

 the pollen parent the " father." Thus : 



55 took after the mother ; 

 19 took after the father ; 

 13 rather after the mother ; 



5 rather after the father ; 



5 took after both parents ; 



3 after neither parent ; 



3 after mother, but with modification ; 



• 1 mostly after the mother, but the father influenced ; 



5 had the colour of the mother, but the form of the father ; 



4 had the colour of the father, but the form of the mother ; 



1 had the form of the father, but the colour was different from 

 both parents. 



Total 114 



It will be seen that the preponderance of the mother's or seed-bearer's 

 influence is great ; for 



55 gave flowers much like their mother's ; 



13 gave them rather like the mother's ; 



_3^were like the mother's, though with some modification. 



71 



That is, in 71 out of 114 the influence of the mother was conspicuous. 



