FREESIAS AND LACHEN ALIAS. 



of these plants is which, and also as to which are of specific rank 

 and which are not. Mr. John Hoog, of Haarlem, who has paid great 

 attention to the family, thinks there are three — refracta, aurea, and 

 Armstrongii. Mr. W. Watson, of Kew, thinks there is only one, 

 and in a letter to the author of these notes writes : " Baker says 

 that there is only one species, and I see no reason to disagree with 

 him." Now, as Mr. Baker has made the tribe to which the Freesia 

 belongs in a special way his own, and as Mr. Watson is the curator 

 of Kew, and has every opportunity of studying plants from living 

 specimens, the joint imprimatur of these two men may be taken 

 as " the last wora." Freesia rejracta is the one and only species ; 

 aurea, Leichtlinii- and Armstrongii are but Elspeths, Betsys, and 

 Besses, or in other words " forms " of Elizabeth or rejracta. 



The Old Varieties. — What, then, is there to be said about these 

 old originals, as they may well be called in contradistinction to the 

 new seedlings which modern seedling-raisers are producing in ever- 

 increasing numbers ? If we compare the old rejracta, which was 

 cultivated about 1816, with the new seedlings we shall see the 

 difference and variety of forms which have been produced in recent 

 years. Some are like a " throw back," they are so similar in 

 shape to the picture in the Botanical Register of the plant that Lee 

 and Kennedy grew in their nursery in 1816. Some of the others, 

 more particularly 'he bloom which is named 'Daddy-long-legs,' 

 show how great is the change that has taken place, and are a 

 foretaste of what is about to come. Rejracta, as it is now known, 

 is a pure white with a yellow blotch on the lower centre seg- 

 ment, and sometimes in addition on the edges of those next it. 

 ' Iscoyd White ' is a fine form of this variety, and originated 

 as a chance seedling in the gardens of Iscoyd Park, Flintshire. 

 Refracta alba is a pure white variety, of which the American-raised 

 form ' Purity ' is probably the best. Leichtlinii is a beautiful pale 

 yellow with an orange-yellow blotch. It was introduced into com- 

 merce by Max Leichtlin, of Baden, who got it from the Botanical 

 Garden at Genoa. A finer form, called Leichtlinii major, has been raised 

 by C. Smith, of Guernsey. Aurea is a small deep yellow, and was intro- 

 duced by Messrs. Wallace, of Colchester. Mr. Herbert Chapman 

 used this variety in the production of his F. X Chapmanii, which, 

 like all those just mentioned, is sweet-scented. Armstrongii is a 

 " rich rosy pink " variety found by Mr. Armstrong, a land agent, 

 in the course of his professional travels at Humansdorp. He visited 

 Kew in 1898, when he gave Mr. Watson a bulb. This took good 

 ways and thrived and increased, and in the course of time the hybrid 

 F. X kewensis was raised from it. An account of this novelty, from 

 the pen of Mr. Watson, appeared in The Garden for 1901, p. 374. 

 The back volumes of this paper contain numerous articles and 

 references on the history and cultivation of both the Freesia and the 

 Lachenalia, and should be consulted by anyone who takes an interest 

 in their past. 



