AMARYLLIDACEjE. 
14.9 
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 narrow 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 as long : and I dis- 
covered equestriforme growing unperceived in a mass of pa- 
rasitic 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 vegeta- 
ble black earth of different places, that it should be tried 
cautiously. 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 Hip- 
peastra 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 a better drainage. The finest bulbs I 
ever saw were three self-sown seedlings from a cross-bred 
plant, which established themselves in the pot where Con- 
volvulus Gangeticus was growing. They killed the Convol- 
vulus and at last broke the pot, and have not been so vigor- 
ous, 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 care- 
fully so as to cover only part of the hole, than by many, of 
which the lowest covers the aperture, and the remainder be- 
come 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 a 
cavity of which a little peat had been thrown to encourage 
the growth of a Pleurothallis ; and I do not doubt the bulbs 
being often found on old trees amongst the ferns and other 
