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CULTIVATION OF THE GENUS CYRTANTHUS 
AND OTHERS, 
AS RECOMMENDED BY THE HONOURABLE AND REVEREND WILLIAM HERBERT, IN HIS 
EXCELLENT WORK ON THE AMARYLLlDACEiE. 
ON CYRTANTHUS. 
" They are altogether plants of difficult culture, the bulbs being more dis- 
posed to dwindle and rot than to increase in bulk. Mr. Griffin was, I think, more 
successful than most others in the cultivation of C. ohliquus, of which he had many- 
strong bulbs on a shelf, very near the glass in his stove, when the heat was never 
great. A common greenhouse is usually too damp for it in winter, and the air of a 
hot stove too confined. A light soil which is not retentive of water will be found 
to suit the whole genus ; and I think that the use of peat will always be dangerous 
to them. Those with persistent leaves should be cautiously watered in winter, the 
deciduous species not at all. C. carneus is one of the most difficult to manage ; 
twice I lost it, notwithstanding the greatest care, and have at last succeeded in 
establishing one with better hopes, by giving it water but very seldom the first year, 
and rather more after it had formed a strong leaf, keeping it as much as possible in 
a draught of air in the greenhouse. It is planted in a mixture of white sand with a 
little light loam, with an open under drain. 
" With respect to the other species, there is some peculiarity in the soil con- 
genial to them which it is very difficult to analyse. When I lived at Mitcham, in 
Surrey, C. angustifolius was a weed with me, ripening seed freely, and the seedlings 
quickly came to a flowering age, and were vigorous, being potted in the soil of 
Mitcham Common, which was a light brown earth, with a little admixture of dead 
furze leaves on a gravelly substratum. Since I lived in Yorkshire, I have been able 
to find no soil that suited it, and although many changes were tried, the plants 
dwindled and all perished ; nor have I found any species of Cyrtanthus succeed 
well in the soils to which I have access here. Mr. Rollison had equal success with 
C. angustifolius at his nursery at Tooting, near Mitcham. C. lutescens has, I be- 
lieve, never been in Europe, but Dr. Burchell has many specimens of it. It has 
very narrow leaves, and comes very near to C. odorus, except in its colour, which 
is invariably a yellowish white. Ventricosus, figured by Jacquin, under the name 
angustifolius, is only known to us by his plate and description. It was probably 
one of Masson's plants from the East Coast, and is allied to Collinus. . Mr. Ker con- 
ceived that Jacquin had by mistake represented a scape of spiralis, with the foliage 
of angustifolius; but it is evident that his plant had not the inflorescence of 
spiralis" 
" The recollection that Hippeastrum equestre, single and double, which will not 
exist in the light soils to which I have access in Yorkshire, thrive exceedingly with 
me at Mitcham, in Surrey, in the same soil that peculiarly suited Cyrtanthus an- 
gustifolius, and that all the Cyrtanthiform bulbs are disposed to rot in light earth 
VOL. IV. — NO. XLVII. K K 
