157 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF ALSTROMERIAS. 
BY MR. W. SCOTT, GARDENER TO CHARLES BARCLAY, ESQ. M.P., F.H.S.* 
As the Aktromerias exhibited by Mr. Barclay, on the 7th of June, 1834, at 
the Gardens at Chiswick, were so generally admired that the Society's large silver 
medal was awarded for them, we trust a description of his mode of treating- them 
may not be unacceptable to our readers. " When I first came to Bury Hill," he says, 
*'in April, 1831, I found several varieties in small pots of the size generally termed 
sixties, which were suffering from being kept too moist, and Alstromeria tricolor 
or Flos Martinia, and Pulchella or Simsii, were planted in the border in front of 
the stove. Being- very partial to the genus, although I had never seen any of the 
varieties before, except Ligtu and Peregrina, I began immediately to turn my 
attention towards thera. Being- well aware, from what I had seen of the two kinds 
with which 1 was acquainted, that they require rest for a few months in the course 
of the season, I removed all the plants I could find, (which, as well as I can re- 
collect, were HooJceri, Pulchella, Pallida, Peregrina, Acutifolia, Peregrina alha, 
Psitacina, Edulis, Ligtu, and a variety from Mr. Nuttall, raised by him from 
Peruvian seeds, and which had never flowered here,) to a small pit in front of the 
pine stove, giving- them no water till the earth about their roots got quite dry ; as 
soon as they began to recover, I potted them in the size called forty-eig-hts, and 
kept them on a shelf against the back wall of the greenhouse, about three feet 
from the top lights ; and althoug-h I lost Hookeri, Peregrina alha, and Edulis, I 
had the satisfaction of seeing- the others thrive much better than they had done the 
previous year. I also took up from the border in front of the stove, Tricolor and 
Pulchella, and g-ave them the same treatment. When the leaves began to decay, 
at the end of July or beginning- of August, I withheld water, and allowed the plants 
to rest till the beginning of November, 1832, when they again began to vegetate: 
I then repotted them, and gave them every encouragement, in rich mould com- 
posed of loam, rotten dung, and leaf mould, with a little sand ; this I find to be 
the best compost for growing them in. As they filled their pots with roots I 
shifted them progressively to a larger size : and had in June, 1833, the pleasure of 
flowering the species from Mr. Nuttall and Pallida, for the first time since they had 
been at Bury Hill ; and I succeeded in growing Tricolor to the height of two feet 
three inches, well covered with flowers ; none of my pots that season were larger 
than what are termed sixteens. When the flovv^ering was over and the leaves be- 
ginning to decay, I again resorted to the plan of drying, or resting, the plants till 
the following November ; I afterwards gave them the same course of treatment as 
before ; but as the roots had attained a greater degree of strength, the size of the 
pots was enlarged, until some of the stronger varieties were planted in the size 
No. 6j in which they arrived at the state in which they were exhibited at the 
* Read before the Horticultural Society, February 2nd, 1836. 
