128 JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
CROCOSMIA AUREA, AND TRITON IAS (SYJV. MONTBRETIAS). 
By MoNSiEUE Emile Lemoine. 
TRead August 28, 1900.] 
Monthretia crocosmiceflora and the series of plants derived from it 
form a very interesting botanical group, not simply from the point of 
view of the. gardener, who knows the many uses of these beautiful plants, 
but also from the naturalist's point of view. 
It is generally admitted by all that hybrids are as a rule either abso- 
lutely barren or at most produce descendants as lacking in number as 
they are also in vigour and in reproductive qualities. Now Monthretia 
crocosmiceflora is a hybrid, and by no means an ordinary hybrid, for it is 
one of the very small groups of bigeneric hybrids, its two parents ranking 
as species of different genera ; and yet it has given birth to a long line of 
vigorous and fertile plants which are almost indispensable for the 
ornamentation of gardens, and whose use as cut flowers is quite 
unsurpassed. 
It is more than fifty years since the family of Iridefe was enriched by 
the introduction of Tritonia aurea, whose name was changed some years 
after by Planchon to Crocosmia aurea, because he found that all the 
characteristics of this species were absolutely distinct from those of the 
old Tritonia crocata, or Ixia crocata and other allied species. Though 
greatly praised at its first introduction, this plant was, however, not very 
extensively grown, and one only met with it in the gardens of amateurs, 
who were more enthusiastic over rare and interesting species than over 
popular flowers which could be planted in orderly masses of bright colours 
producing a great but somewhat vulgar effect. 
From a small round corm springs a little tuft of long narrow leaves 
from the centre of which rises a flower spike 2 or 3 feet high, slightly 
branched and decked with large regular blossoms, with six orange- 
coloured segments, the individual flowers opening successively. As soon 
as the fertilisation is complete the fruit develops into a bright reddish-brown 
globular capsule, which looks like a berry, but contains three large 
reddish-purple fleshy seeds. The corm sends out very long underground 
stolons, which, if the plant is left undisturbed, produce new corms, often 
at considerable distance from the parent. A light soil is best for 
Crocosmia aurea. 
The introduction of Monthretia Pottsii is of more recent date, hardly 
exceeding twenty-five years. Although the flowers of this species are 
much less beautiful, it nevertheless rapidly became popular, and was 
extensively cultivated, the reason being that though the individual 
flowers are smaller and less regular and showy, there are far more of 
them on each bloom-spike, and the plant is hardier, less exacting as 
regards soil and cultivation, and much more vigorous. Each corm sends 
out quantities of short stolons, which shoot up all round it, so that at the 
end of the season you have a clump instead of a single plant. The 
flowers are irregular, and opposite each other on the spike ; the three 
