90 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The flower consists of three outer (often called sepals) and three inner 

 petals. The three upper ones (one outer and two inner) are similarly 

 coloured and striped, and are curved upwards. The lower three (two 

 outer and one inner, usually smaller) are very often differently marked, 

 and they often project forwards like a shovel. The two outer and lower 

 ones, as broad as the upper three, are often only marked in their upper 

 half, while the lower half may be not marked at all. The smaller and 

 lower petal is often only faintly marked. 



Of course modern florists have been endeavouring to make, a regular 

 flower of the Hippeastrum, with all the petals of equal breadth, and all 

 equally marked. They would succeed much better, I think, if they could 

 evolve a flower looking upwards, like the modern form of Gloxinia ; such 

 a form not improbably was the original one from which the modern one, 

 looking sideways, may have resulted by heavy insect agency. The 

 position of the stamens and pistil, resting on the lower and usually smaller 

 petal, with the different markings of the three lower petals, would indicate 

 that our modern Hippeastrum came from a Sprekelia-formed ancestor. 



We would have then something like the following life-history of our 

 modern Hippeastrum. First, it was a regular flower looking upwards ; 

 second, it was made to look sideways by insect agency, which gave it a 

 somewhat Sprekelia form ; and third, the florists are endeavouring to turn 

 it into a regular flower again, with this difference, that they wish to keep 

 it facing sideways, as in a pot on the stage of a glass-house the beauty 

 of its flowers can be more easily seen. But Hippeastrums are not always 

 grown in pots. In Lucknow I grew them in the ground under the shade 

 of trees, and in Ceylon I have seen them grown in the open border. 



Taking everything into consideration with regard to these bigeneric 

 crosses, there may be perhaps a faint chance that some of them may 

 inherit the colour, if not the form, of the male plant. 



"Nothing can be known without trying," and time will show whether 

 among a lot of perspectively "false hybrids " something new may not turn 

 up. 



The crossed plants are all Amaryllids : that is, in Darwinian phraseology, 

 they have descended from a common stock, during the ages through 

 which they have existed. 



I believe, according to Mendel's law, crossings, at first, mostly take 

 after the mother. But if these are again self -fertilised, their progeny 

 may split up into the two original parent forms. Unfortunately, I have 

 not life enough left to carry on these experiments further. 



Mr, C. R. Fielder stated in the " Gardeners' Chronicle " of April 30, 

 1904, that it took him from 1893 to 1904, that is about eleven years, to 

 evolve a wholly white Hippeastrum. In reality it is not a pure white one, 

 but a creamy white. I have had Hippeastrums of a milk-white ground, 

 feathered crimson. If some one, as indefatigable as Mr. Fielder, were to 

 take these up and endeavour to eliminate the coloured feathering, he 

 might succeed in producing a Hippeastrum of a whiteness as pure as that 

 of the Lilium candidum. 



A lifetime is scarcely long enough to carry out these experiments to 

 a satisfactory conclusion and with scientific accuracy. 



