CULTIVATION OF THE GENUS CYRTANTHUS. 
251 
JRegium requires less care, the stove, and rest in winter. The whole family of 
bulbulosum, except crocatum, are easily managed. By giving- them two periods of 
rest, in winter and again at midsummer, they, as well as the mules, regin-vittatum 
and rutilo-regio-vittatum, may often be made to flower in the spring and autumn. 
I have found great advantage with bulbs that were to stand on a hot flue, in placing 
under them a shallow tray, made of tin or zinc, and nearly filled with sand. In 
pursuance of this system of encouraging their growth, by moist warm sand under- 
neath, a gentleman to whom 1 had given several tender bulbs informed me that he 
had constructed a pit for them with a chamber, into which was introduced a slender 
steam pipe, perforated with small holes ; and the chamber was covered with hurdles, 
over which he placed a layer of brushwood, and on that a body of sand, in which 
the pots were plunged. The steam worked its way through into the sand, and 
kept up a moist warmth, which was very congenial to the tender bulbs during their 
season of growth ; and I do not conceive that any better mode of cultivation could 
be adopted. A bed of the various splendid Hippeastra, successfully cultivated in a 
low warm house, would exceed most vegetable displays in beauty. Some of the 
varieties of H. bulbulosum, if not all, may be found in South America, growing in 
black vegetable earth. My collector found pulverulentum in such soil with the 
scape three feet high, and the leaves long ; and I discovered equestriforme growing 
unperceived in a mass of parasitic plants, Cereus and Pitcairnia, which had been 
torn off a stem or the face of a rock. I have, however, lost so many bulbs by the use 
of peat at various times, that I am generally fearful of using it. There is so much 
variety in the vegetable black earth of different places, that it should be tried cau- 
tiously. I have been told that H. calyptratum has been found growing on the 
branches of trees, and that it has been necessary to shoot off the limb by repeated 
discharges of a gun, in order to get the bulb ; and I have seen it grown in a pot of 
moss. The principal causes of the sickly state of Hippeastra in cultivation, are 
too light a soil, want of water when the leaves are pushing, and too much water 
after. I have observed them grow with unusual vigour in a split or broken pot, in 
consequence of better drainage. The finest bulbs I ever saw were two self-sown 
seedlings from a cross-bred plant, which established themselves in the pot where 
Convolvulus Gangeticus was growing. They killed the Convolvulus^ and at last 
broke the pot, and have not been so vigorous since ; in consequence of its falling to 
pieces, it became necessary to shift them. It is evident that good drainage is 
essential to their health. With earth that sets firm, that object may be effected 
better by a single crock placed carefully so as to cover only part of the hole, than 
by many, of which the lowest covers the aperture, and the remainder become choked 
by the earth settling amongst them. I have had seedlings of crosses with vittatum, 
which sent up two stems of blossoms from a pot scarcely twice the size of the bulb. 
A self-sown seedling established itself in one of my stoves, and is growing freely on 
a stump of wood, into the cavity of which a little peat had been thrown to encou- 
rage the growth of a Pleurothallis ; and I do not doubt the bulbs being often found 
on old trees, amongst the ferns, and other parasites ; but I consider a well-drained 
rich alluvial soil to be most fit for bringing them to perfection. They appear to have 
