THE AMARYLLIS. 
40: 
been seen ; for instance, the tube of the 
flower may be shortened, the trumpet mouth 
brought very much larger and more reflexed, 
the texture of the flower more rich and 
velvety, the points rounded, and the colour 
more dense. All this, however, must be done 
by perseverance and taste. The stove varie- 
ties may be used to cross the hardy or green- 
house kinds, and the principal concern should 
be to look well to form. The stove varieties 
produce seeds as well as any of the tribe, and 
the plan of crossing, already successfully 
employed in many places, can hardly fail to 
gratify the cultivators who propose to raise 
new varieties from seed. 
The following notes, on the more recent 
divisions into which this family has been split, 
will be found instructive to those who go 
more into the botanical than the floral merits 
of these noble plants. They are furnished by 
an intelligent correspondent, to whom we are 
frecpently indebted : — 
DESCRIPTFVE NOTES OF SOME OF THE 
AMARYLLIDE^E. 
Modern botanists have found it necessary 
-to separate the old genus Amaryllis into seve- 
ral, in order to draw up generic or family 
characters sufficiently clear and concise to 
serve for the purpose of botanical reference. 
The Hon. and Rev. *W. Herbert, dean of 
Manchester, may be particularly mentioned, 
as having examined and studied, with great 
diligence and care, the plants included in 
the natural order Amaryllidacese, or that 
assemblage or group of plants, of which 
Amaryllis is at once the type, and furnishes 
the name; and his work on that order of plants 
presents a large mass of botanical information. 
The following are some of the most distinct 
and ornamental of these plants : — - 
Sprekelia is the name applied to that 
portion of the original family Amai-yllis, of 
which the Jaeobasan Lily (A. formosissima) is 
the type. 
Sprekelia formosissima, (Jacobean Lily.) 
— It is a splendid plant, with narrowish, long 
channelled leaves, and a flower stem bearing a 
single flower at the top, of six petals ; the 
upper one reflexed, the two side ones spread- 
ing and reflexed, the three lower ones sloping 
downwards, with their base convolute ; the 
whole forming a large flower of great beauty. 
The colour is rich crimson ; native of Guate- 
mala, in Mexico ; flowers in May; about nine 
inches high. A hardy frame bulb. 
Sprekelia glauca, (Glaucous-leaved Spre- 
kelia.) — The flowers are smaller and paler 
than the last, and the leaves more glaucous. 
Native of Mexico. 
Sprekelia cybister, (the Tumbler Sprekelia.) 
—The flowers of this plant are white, with 
pink lines ; native of Bolivia ; height, about 
one foot. There is a variety of this with a 
shorter flower, called, *S'. cybister, var. brevis. 
It is named the Tumbler, from the singular 
precipitation of the buds in their progress 
towards expansion, and in the final perpendi- 
cular position of the lower lip of the flower. 
Stove bulbs. 
Hippeastrum includes many of the most 
showy plants usually known as Amaryllises. 
It is named from hippeus, a knight, and astroii, 
a star, in allusion to the stripes of pale colour 
which occur at the base of each petal, together 
forming the resemblance of a star in the centre 
of the flowers. 
Hippeastrum aulicum, (Crowned Hippeas- 
trum.) — A very handsome bulb, with broad 
obtuse leaves and somewhat funnel-shaped 
flowers, formed of six broadly-ovate petals. 
They are rich crimson, with a green stripe in 
the centre of each petal, forming a star in 
Habranthus Icermesinus. 
the centre of the flower. Flowers in March, 
and often in the summer ; about one foot and 
a half high; native of Brazil. There is a 
variety with broader petals, and another with 
more glaucous leaves. Stove bulbs. 
Hippeastrum calyptratnm, (Green-flowered 
Hippeastrum.) — This has green, narrow -pe- 
talled flowers, with faint red tesselated marks. 
Flowers in May and August ; one foot and a 
half high; native of Brazil. Stove bulb. 
Hippeastrum psittacinum, (Parrot - like 
Hippeastrum.) — The flowers of this species 
have broad, green petals, beautifully streaked 
and margined with bright red. Flowers in 
May and August ; one foot and a half high j 
native of Brazil. Stove bulb. 
Hippeastrum Solandriflorum, (Solandra- 
like Hippeastrum.) — The flowers of this are 
eight inches long ; the colour green and 
yellowish white. Flowers in April ; one and 
a half feet high; native of South America. 
The variety named striatum has the flowers 
faintly striped on the outside with red: rubri- 
