FREESIAS AND LACHENALI AS . 



29 



FREESIAS AND LACHEN ALIAS. 



By Rev. J. Jacob. 



[Read April 8, 1919 f Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., V.M.H., in the Chair.] 



There is much more in common between these two families of plants 

 than one might at first suppose. 



Freesias and Lachenalias are both bulbous plants. They come 

 from the same part of the globe — the Cape of Good Hope, or South 

 Africa. They have both of them just missed being hardy in the 

 British Isles, and need the friendly protection of a cool glasshouse 

 in which to grow. The general outline of their cultivation is the 

 same, viz. early potting, a cool temperature during their period of 

 growth, a gradual ripening off, and then a period of thorough rest during 

 which they must be kept dust-dry and warm. They both flower in 

 the early months of the year. Lastly, they are both new-comers to 

 our greenhouse flora, or, to be more accurate, they are reintroductions, 

 for although members of both families were carried captive to Europe 

 over a hundred years ago — as we may learn from consulting such 

 picture-books of plants as the famous Redoute's " Les Liliacees," 

 published from 1802 to 1816 ; and Leopold Trattinick's " Archiv 

 der Gewachskunde," published 1812-1818 — for some reason or another 

 they pined away and died, or, what amounts to the same thing in a 

 practical horticultural sense, they disappeared from ordinary gardens, 

 although here and there they continued to exist. The last point in 

 their resemblance is the fact that they are both out to win their spurs 

 of popularity as indispensable plants for the ornamentation of our 

 glass-houses in the early months of the year ; for although certain 

 members of each family may be said to have done so already, as refracta 

 among the Freesias and Nelsonii among the Lachenalias, it is certain 

 that neither the one nor the other may make a similar boast, seeing 

 the possibilities ahead, to Louis XIV. of France, who exclaimed 

 " L'etat, c'est moi ! " The time is past when anything of the sort might 

 have had some semblance of truth. It is a case of new men, new 

 manners ; or, if put horticulturally, new hybridizers, new seedling 

 raisers, new blood ; new varieties of divers shapes and colours, which 

 cannot help arousing a widespread interest in both families. The 

 main purpose of this paper is to introduce to public notice some of 

 these novelties, in the hope that their enumeration and description 

 may gain for them a wider cultivation and popularity than is the 

 case at present. There are signs that Freesias are going to forge 

 ahead, especially now that the new coloured varieties are becoming 

 more widely known. Lachenalias up to the present have not made 



