RICHARDIA 
241 
sown and grow unmoved during the first 
season, pricking off being often attended 
with loss. Though their culture in the open 
during summer does not appear to have been 
tried in this country, it has given such good 
results in America, Germany, and the south of 
Europe, that there seems little doubt but that 
(at least in the warmer parts) it would be 
equally successful in Britain. Plants reserved 
for seeding must, however, be started early 
and flowered under glass if the seed is to ripen 
thoroughly before autumn. Culture in the 
open is described as like that of any potato, the 
roots being planted in spring and allowed to 
grow and flower freely until cut down by the 
early frosts of autumn. 
Varieties and Crosses. — A fine variety 
named R. E. Rossi, after its introducer, Mr. 
Donald Ross of Capetown, is distinct and yet 
finerthan theoriginal plant. It is of somewhat 
dwarfer habit, with shorter stalks and smaller 
leaves more thickly spotted ; its spathes are of 
asoftercanaryyellow,with ablotchof purple in 
the tube, and its roots yield offsets with greater 
freedom. From the advance already made by 
seedlings there seems reason to expect further 
improvement in cultivated forms of R. 
Elliottiana. Several crosses between this and 
other species have already flowered, the most 
important being a cross with R. albo-maculata, 
raised by Mr. Latham (late of the Birmingham 
Botanical Gardens) and flowered in 1903 ; it 
is a fine plant, bearing spathes of pale sulphur 
yellow with a crimson blotch at the base and 
leaves freely spotted like those of the parents. 
Repeated in America this cross has produced 
R. Mrs. Theo. Roosevelt, which, though appar- 
ently identical with the Birmingham plant, 
has attracted wider notice and been freely pro- 
pagated. It is very prolific, nearly hardy, and 
comes true from seed. A third plant very near 
these is R. Taylori sent out by Messrs. Clibran 
as a cross between Elliottiana and aurata, and 
characterised by the same pale yellow spathe 
with a dark eye. A German seedling with 
much the same parentage is R.Solfaterre,vj\\\ch. 
only differs from Elliottiana in its sulphur-yel- 
low spathe with purple base. Other crosses 
have been raised between this kind and R. 
Adlamiht2irin^ spathes of creamy-white with 
a dark eye. 
R. hastata. — A plant of wide distribution in 
various parts of South Africa, and long known 
though rare in gardens, having been first 
brought fromNatal by Messrs. Veitch in 1 8 57, 
and again introduced in slightly varying forms 
during recent years, from points much further 
north. It is of dwarf habit, rarely exceeding 2 
feet in height, with leaves of dull green very 
like those of the White Arum, but with lobes 
pointed at the base and bearing a few hairs 
on the lower part of the leaf-stalk. In colour 
its flowers vary from creamy-white with a 
heavy blotch of crimson-purple to dull straw- 
colour, or greenish-yellow, the green colour 
being deeper on the outside of the spathe and 
increasing as they fade. The spathes are 
beautifully folded from a broad base and 
cupped in form rather than trumpet-shaped, 
tapering to a short erect tip. It is a plant of 
easy culture, needingsimilar care to the White 
Arum and flowering during summer. The 
geographical form discovered of late years, 
and at the outset reported as distinct, under 
the names of R. Lutwychei and Pride of the 
Congo, is found to be so near this kind as to 
be hardly distinguishable when grown under 
similar conditions. By many botanists De- 
leuil's Yellow Arum {R. auratd) is also classed 
as a mere variety of this old plant. 
R. melanoleuca. — A dwarf and distinct kind 
brought from Natal by Messrs. Bull in 1869. 
It is the smallest of the Yellow Arums, with 
spathes about 3 inches long and broad, of pale 
straw colour with a large black-purple throat, 
not folded,but widely open from the base, expos- 
ing the yellow spadix; margins and tips deeply 
recurved. These small, neat flowers, borne 
upon long light stems, are very pretty for 
cutting. The leaves are broad and fleshy, 6 
to 12 inches long, with a few bristly hairs 
upon the reddish stems, and dark green blades 
sparsely covered with whitish spots. A plant 
of easy culture,flowering in summer. The plant 
known as R. suffusa is so near this as to be gen- 
erally regarded as merely a robust form of it. 
R.Nelsoni. — One of the last new kinds,from 
the interior of South Africa. It is akin to R. 
albo-maculata, but of very vigorous growth (at 
times exceeding 4 feet), with flowers over- 
topping the ample foliage of dark green, covered 
— as in so many kinds — with whitish, transpar- 
