THE ALSTRCEMERTA, ITS VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION. 
385 
THE ALSTROEMERIA, 
ITS VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION. 
This genus was named after one Alstrce- 
mer, of whom the following brief biographical 
sketch will form an interesting introduction 
to the subsequent enumeration of the various 
kinds of Alstroemeria known to botanists, and 
the accompanying outline of their cultivation. 
These particulars are, for the most part, a 
translation of a paper published in a recent 
number of the Ghent Annates: — 
Jonas Alstroemer was a Swedish merchant, 
whose varied knowledge, his probity, zeal, and 
constant industry, enabled him to acquire a 
handsome fortune. He had laid the founda- 
tion of his prosperity at London, in profiting 
by the example of a great people; but the spirit 
of commercial enterprise had not proved un- 
favourable to the expansion of generous emo- 
tions, towards the development of which inter- 
course in society is otherwise conducive. The 
counting-house had not absorbed the cares or 
dried up the kindly impulses of this man of 
wealth. Alstroemer resided at London in 
1696, and on his return to Sweden he lost no 
time in instituting proper measures for im- 
50. 
ia pelegrina. 
provement in the breed of sheep. He was 
the first to import the rams of Angora towards 
this object ; he also had works erected for 
refining sugar, and he had a vast number of 
the dye plants cultivated. He devoted him- 
self entirely to the promotion of Agriculture 
in relation to the Arts. 
A century before the time of the celebrated 
Parmentier* of France, Alstroemer had per- 
ceived the value of the potato : having appre- 
ciated its economical properties in England, 
he had it imported to Sweden, where he 
caused a great quantity to be planted. This 
single action might have made him glorious, 
but he did more : in England he had learned 
the principles of association, and all his efforts 
were directed to the formation of those pow- 
erful societies, which, under the name of 
the Levant and the East India Companies, 
effected so much in the commerce of Europe. 
A long life of ninety-six years was wholly 
devoted to useful labours. After his death his 
countrymen erected a monument to his me- 
mory in the Exchange of Stockholm, on which 
is inscribed a short but eloquent testimony 
of the good he had done : — 
" To Jonas Alstroemer, Founder of the 
Industrial Arts in his Country." 
Jonas left four sons, who inherited their 
father's love of progress, his talents, and his 
useful activity. One of these, named Claude, 
was born in 1736, became a pupil of Linnseus, 
* Alstroemer was born in the year 1665, and died 
in 1761. Parmentier was born in 1737, and died in 
1813. 
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